A division bench of the Allahabad High Court has held that both the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax (ACIT) and the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (JCIT) are competent officers for sanctioning issue of re-opening assessment notice under sections 147/ 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The appellant- assessee sold two pieces of land with 21 other co-owners situated at Gata and received an amount of Rs.1,96,533.00 and sold share in property 202B and 203B for an amount of Rs.33,828.00. The appellant, while filing return, claimed that the said income is exempted from income tax on the ground that income of sale of agricultural land was not covered by provisions of Section 2(14) of the Act.
While completing the re-assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer treated the above income as Long Term Capital Gain and made addition in respect of the same.
Before the Tribunal, the assessee contended that the notice under section 148 of the Act was not issued after taking approval from the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax and, therefore, the assessment order was without jurisdiction. However, the Tribunal rejected the contention.
The division bench comprising Justices Bharati Sapru and Dinesh Kumar Singh noted that the notice under Section 148 of the Act was issued to the appellant-assessee with prior sanction of the Additional Commissioner of the Income Tax.
The Court noted that as per section 2(28C) of the Act, the word “Joint Commissioner” means a person appointed to be a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax or an Additional Commissioner of Income Tax under sub-section (1) of Section 117.
The bench held that “Thus, the Joint Commissioner includes an Additional Commissioner as well. The issue is otherwise covered by the judgments of various High Courts.”
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