The Calcutta High Court has held that notice issued under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 cannot be challenged through writ petition after the final assessment order.
Kesoram Industries Limited,the petitioner is primarily aggrieved by the issuance of the notice under Section 148 of said Act by the jurisdictional assessing officer having regard to the provision contained in Section 151A of the said Act and the scheme notified thereunder on 22nd November, 2022.
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It was submitted that the notice under Section 148 of the said Act having been issued by the jurisdictional assessing officer is bad in law and cannot be sustained. He would submit that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in connection with a Special Leave Petition (Civil) Diary No(s). 13266/2025 had by order dated 6th September, 2024 already restrained the department from passing any adverse order against the assessee until further orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid matter.
By drawing attention of the Court to the show-cause notice dated 18th March, 2025, he would further submitted that said notice had been issued de hors the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for faceless assessment under section 144B of the said Act, as circulated by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 3rd August, 2022, which, inter alia, provides that the show-cause notice shall be issued by providing seven days’ response time. This apart, it is submitted that all relevant documents were not supplied to the petitioner despite the petitioner requesting the respondents to supply the same.
After issuance of the notice issued under Section 148 of the said Act in respect of the assessment year 2019-20 on 12th April 2023, the petitioner had participated in the assessment proceeding and an assessment order under Section 147 of the said Act has been passed on 28th March, 2025. Although Mr. Jain, Advocate, by placing before the Court the notice issued under Section 148 of the said Act, has submitted that the said notice is bad since the same has not been issued in accordance with section 151A of the said Act and the scheme notified by the Central Government, the court viewed that there has been no contemporaneous challenge in this regard by the petitioner.
The petitioner participated in the proceeding, it is only after the assessment order has been passed, the petitioner has filed the writ petition. There is no explanation in the petition as to what prevented the petitioner from challenging the notice issued under Section 148 previously.
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A single bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury observed that the petitioner cannot be permitted to challenge the said notice issued under Section 148 of the said Act by way of filing of writ petition after the assessment order has been passed. When the notice was issued, the limitation period was fast approaching, having regard thereto to a limited period was afforded to the petitioner for responding to the said show cause notice. The same cannot be said to be de hors the provisions of the SOP. This apart, the petitioner had duly responded to the said show cause notice within the time specified and did not raise any objection as regards non-compliance of SOP.
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On the ground of non-supply of essential documents,the bench found that the petitioner has acknowledged to have received the copy of the excel sheet though the petitioner claims that some other documents were necessary for it to give appropriate response.
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