The Calcutta High Court upheld the order passed under Section 148A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as the decision made was on basis of the material available on record.
The case of the appellant is that the respondent assessing authority had failed to consider that information for several assessment years cannot be called for as has been done in the notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Income Tax Act.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that no information could be sought for separately for the assessment year 2018-2019 since the appeal is pending before the appellate authority and the re-assessment proceedings in relation to the said year has been challenged by the appellant before this court and by order, the matter stood remanded back to the assessing officer.
It was further submitted that the notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Income Tax Act cannot be modified or amended by a subsequent communication and the only option available was to drop the proceedings and issue fresh notice if the same is permissible under law. Further it is contended that the respondent assessing officer did not conduct any independent investigation or enquiry under Section 148A(a) of the Income Tax Act before initiating proceedings by issuance of a notice under Section 148A(b) of the Income Tax Act.
The senior standing counsel contended that the notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Income Tax Act was pertaining to the assessment year 2016-2017 as is evident from the notice and the assessing officer has not called for information for multiple assessment years as alleged by the appellant.
It was further submitted that after the receipt of the notice, the assessee had sent their objection/interim reply for which an appropriate reply was given by the assessing officer by email clearly mentioning that the information sought for was in respect of cash deposits during the financial year 2015-2016 pertaining to the assessment year 2016-2017.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya observed that “The stipulation under Clause (d) has been complied with by the assessing officer who has taken a decision, on the basis of the material available on record including the reply/replies given by the assessee and found that the case of the assessee for the assessment year under question namely 2016-2017 is a fit case to issue notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act and prior approval of the specified authority has also been obtained. Thus, the provision of the Section 148A of the Income Tax Act has been scrupulously followed by the assessing officer and there is no error in the decision-making process of this court to interfere.”
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