9911796707
TMI Blog2024 (6) TMI 695X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... arch 2023 issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ["Act"]. The aforesaid notice seeks to reassess the petitioner for Assessment Year ["AY"] 2013-14. 2. Undisputedly, and since the notice was issued on 31 March 2023, it would be the amended regime of reassessment which came into effect from 01 April 2021 which would be applicable. The action for reassessment would thus have to satisfy the provisions made in the First Proviso to Section 149(1) of the Act. The said provision reads as follows: "[149. Time limit for notice.- (1) No notice under Section 148 shall be issued for the relevant assessment year,- (a) if three years have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year, unless the case falls under clause (b); [(b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ment pertaining to an AY prior to 01 April 2021 can be sustained only if it be compliant with the timeframes specified under Section 149 (1) (b), Section 153A or Section 153C as the case may be and on the anvil of those provisions as they existed prior to the commencement of Finance Act, 2021. 4. Viewed in that light, it is manifest that the assessment for AY 2013-14 could not have been reopened. 5. This we note bearing in mind the following additional facts. The record would reflect that pursuant to a search and seizure operation conducted in respect of the Alankit Group on 18 October 2019, the petitioner was served a notice under Section 153C on 03 March 2022. On culmination of those proceedings, the respondent proceeded to pass a final ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ["Act"] as it stood at the relevant time. 4. We note that while dealing with a similar question of computation of the time limit for the "relevant assessment year" as provided under Explanation 1 to Section 153A of the Act, we had in the case of Principal Commissioner of Income Tax-Central-1 v. Ojjus Medicare Pvt. Ltd. [2024 SCC Online Del 2439] held as follows:- "D. The First Proviso to Section 153C introduces a legal fiction on the basis of which the commencement date for computation of the six year or the ten year block is deemed to be the date of receipt of books of accounts by the jurisdictional AO. The identification of the starting block for the purposes of computation of the six and the ten year per ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... which the books of accounts or documents and assets seized are handed over to the jurisdictional AO as opposed to the year of search which constitutes the basis for an assessment under Section 153A. F. While the identification and computation of the six AYs' hinges upon the phrase "immediately preceding the assessment year relevant to the previous year" of search, the ten year period would have to be reckoned from the 31st day of March of the AY relevant to the year of search. This, since undisputedly, Explanation 1 of Section 153A requires us to reckon it "from the end of the assessment year". This distinction would have to necessarily be acknowledged in light of the statute having consciously adopted the phraseology "immediately pre ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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