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TMI Blog2025 (3) TMI 1438X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the period of limitation as stipulated under Section 149(1) of the Act and therefore is liable to be set aside. 2. The impugned notice was preceded by a notice dated 06.08.2024 issued under Section 148A(b) of the Act. The annexure appended to the said notice sets out the information which according to the Assessing Officer [AO] is suggestive of the petitioner's income for the AY 2014-15 escaping assessment. The said notice indicates that on 13.07.2020 a search was conducted at various premises in connection with "Om Kothari Group" of Rajasthan. It was alleged that during the course of investigation, evidence was found regarding details of flats sold in a project named Pallacia and cash components collected from sale of such flats. It is al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ntended on behalf of the petitioner. 6. In The Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax - Central-I v. Ojjus Medicare Pvt. Ltd.: Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:2629-DB, a Coordinate Bench of this court had explained the manner in which a block of six or ten assessment years for which assessments could be reopened in terms of Section 153C of the Act in the following terms: "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 period is governed by the First Proviso ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sets 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 preceding" when it be in relation to the six year peri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ided to initiate an action against the petitioner. Thus, the period of ten years block is required to be computed with reference to the end of the assessment year relating to the financial year in which such decision to initiate proceedings is taken. 9. In Dinesh Jindal v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle 20, Delhi & Ors.: Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:4554-DB this court had noted that the procedure prescribed under Section 153C of the Act would be inapplicable if search is conducted after 31.03.2021 and had held that in such cases, the date on which a decision is taken by the AO to initiate action against a person other than the searched person is required to be construed as a date for the purpose of computing limitation ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... which the computational exercise would have to be undertaken. This, since accepting the submission as canvassed by Mr. Meharchandani, would not only amount to a virtual reconstruction of the statutory prescription of limitation, it would also be contrary to the plain and manifest command of the First Proviso to Section 149(1), and which compels us to adjudge the validity of reopening based on the test of "could not have been issued at that time on account of being beyond the time limit specified under.......... or Section 153A or Section 153C, as the case may be, as they stood immediately before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2021." 10. The said view is also followed by this court in the subsequent decisions in Pankaj Jain v. Assist ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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