The Calcutta High Court held that the reassessment proceedings initiated beyond the limitation period are not sustainable.
The petitioner, SS Commotrade Private Limited challenged the order dated 30th July 2022 under Section 148A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 relating to the assessment year 2014-15 and, all subsequent proceedings based on the impugned notice dated 29th June 2021 under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The petition wason the ground of jurisdiction of the assessing officer in the issuance of the impugned notice under Section 148 of the Act being barred by limitation under Section 149(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The assessing officer has tried to justify the initiation of the re-assessment proceeding by relying on an instruction being No.01/2022 dated 11th May 2022 issued by CBDT. Admittedly, the issuance of notice and initiation of re-assessment proceeding was beyond six years and, prima facie, it was barred by limitation both under the old Act as well as under the newly amended provision relating to Section 147 of the Act.
It was viewed that the matter deserves adjudication by calling affidavits from the respondents and the petitioner has been able to make out a prima facie case for an interim order by raising the issue of jurisdiction of the assessing officer concerned in initiating the impugned re-assessment proceeding.
Justice Md. Nizamuddin held that “let the respondents file an affidavit in opposition within four weeks; the petitioner to file a reply thereto, if any, within one week thereafter.
The matter shall appear for a final hearing in the monthly list of November 2022. In the meantime, there will be no further proceeding based on the impugned order dated 30th July 2022 being Annexure P-6 to the writ petition till the disposal of the writ petition.”
Mr Kapil Goel, Mr. Avra Mazumder, Mr Binayak Gupta, Mr K. Roy, Mr. Sk. Md. Bilwal Hossain appeared for the petitioner and Mr Om Narayan Rai appeared for the respondent.
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