TMI Blog2021 (7) TMI 262X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d Assessing Officer. The sufficiency or correctness of the documents or material handed over by the other Assessing Officer to him also could not be gone into by the Courts at this stage. In the case of Raymond Woolen Mills Ltd. [ 1997 (12) TMI 12 - SUPREME COURT] it has been held that in determining whether the commencement of reassessment proceeding is valid, the Court has only to see whether there is prima facie some material on the basis of which the department has opened the case, and that the sufficiency or correctness of the material could not be considered at this stage. It is true that the supreme Court has made the said observations while considering the validity of the reasons recorded by the Assessing Officer for reopening of the assessment of the assessee under Section 147, whereas the present case arises out of the proceedings initiated and the satisfaction recorded by the Assessing Officer for initiating the proceedings under section 153C of the said Act, nonetheless such reliance of the decision of Supreme Court by the respondent could not be said to be out of place when the matter was concerning about the reopening of the assessment of the petitioner - assessee ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecision of Supreme Court in the case of Commissioner of Income-Tax Gujarat, versus Vijaybhai N. Chandrani reported in (2013) 357 ITR 713(Supreme Court), and submitted that the Court should not interfere at the stage of issuance of notice under section 153C of the said Act, and more particularly when the objections raised by the petitioner have been duly considered by the Assessing Officer. According to him, after the disposal of the objections, the Assessing Officer is required to pass an order of assessment, and if that order goes against the assessee, he could exhaust the remedy under the Act. Such petition at this juncture is also not maintainable in view of the settled legal position that when the alternative remedy is available to the aggrieved party, it must first exhaust the same before approaching the Writ Court. However, the learned advocate Mr. D.R. Patel for the petitioner would submit that existence of alternative remedy itself would not be a bar against entertaining the writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, if the impugned order is without jurisdiction or is passed in violation of the principles of natural justice. 4. In the opinion of the Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d thereafter direct the assessee to file the return for the assessment years in question. We make it clear that while framing the assessment order, the Assessing Authority will not be influenced by any observations made by the High Court while disposing of the Writ Petition. If, for any reason, the assessment order goes against the assessee, he/it shall avail and exhaust the remedies available to him/it under the Act, 1961. 5. Recently, the Coordinate Bench of this Court in similar situation in case of Jitendra Mansukhlal Adesara versus Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax reported in (2021) 126 Taxmann.com 150 (Gujarat), had an occasion to consider the above ratio laid down by the Supreme Court, and it had observed as under : - 23. Thus, the Supreme Court took the view that the assessee should have filed his reply/objections to the satisfaction note and if any assessment order is passed, it would be open for the assessee to avail and exhaust the remedy available to him under the Act, 1961. The only distinguishing feature in the case before the Supreme Court compared to the case on hand is that in the case on hand, the reply/objections were filed by the writ-applicant and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed, by the DCIT Cen, Circle-1(3), Ahmedabad who vide the letter dated 19.03.2019 had forwarded the information to the office of the respondent along with documents for further verification, as the information pertained to the petitioner. Accordingly the respondent had initiated the proceedings under section 142(1) read with section 153C of the said Act by recording the satisfaction that the documents found and seized from the premises of the accommodation entry provider group of Ahmedabad, pertained to the petitioner - assessee and had a bearing on the determination of the total income of the petitioner for the A.Y. 2012-13. As stated earlier, the petitioner filed the objections against the said satisfaction recorded by the respondent and the said objections have been duly considered by the respondent. Under the circumstances, it could not be said that the respondent had recorded the satisfaction on the basis of the borrowed information. 9. In the next limb of his submission, learned advocate Mr. D.R. Patel submitted that the impugned notice under section 153C was issued on the basis of incorrect facts, inasmuch as the satisfaction note recorded by the respondent on 23.09.2019 m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inquiry completely on incorrect facts and based on the borrowed belief of DCIT Central Circle-1(3), Ahmedabad. It may be noted that merely because in the reasons recorded to reopen the case under section 153C, the respondent has recorded in the first opening paragraph that he had received the information from DCIT Cen, Cir-1(3), Ahmedabad, it could not be said that the respondent had borrowed the belief from the other officer or that he had initiated the action without any application of mind. In the reasons recorded in support of the notice under section 142(1) read with section 153C, the respondent has narrated all the material received by him connecting the petitioner for prima facie coming to the conclusion that the sheets seized during the search proceedings at the various locations of MS Patel Group of Ahmedabad, revealed that Shri Raju Bhupendra Desai i.e. the petitioner had entered into monetary transactions with SVP Corporation, the proprietary concern of Shri Vishal D. Pandya. The respondent after having gone through the information and material, had recorded the satisfaction that the documents found and seized from the premises of the accommodation entry provider Group ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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