The High Court (HC) of Kerala has held that the reassessment notice issued without following Provision u/s 148A of the Income Tax Act,1961 is not valid.
Nambiar Balakrishnan Narendran, the petitioner approached the Court, aggrieved by the fact that proceedings were taken against him under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’) without following the procedure contemplated by the provisions of Section 148A of the Income Tax Act.
After the amendment to the provisions of the Income Tax Act in the year 2021 [by the Finance Act of 2021] before reassessment proceedings are initiated under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, it was incumbent on the officer to serve a show cause notice as contemplated by Section 148A of the Income Tax Act.
It was also pointed out that a minimum of seven days is to be given to the petitioner to reply to the same. It was submitted by the petitioner that the notice under Section 148A of the Income Tax Act was not served on the petitioner before the issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act and the notice under Section 148A of the Income Tax Act was subsequently served by messenger.
Further contended that the petitioner did not get any time to respond to the notice under Section 148A of the Income Tax Act and therefore, the proceedings initiated against the petitioner under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act are incompetent and contrary to law.
Since there is no record to suggest that the procedure contemplated u/s 148A of the Income Tax Act was followed before issuing notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, the Court comprise of Justice Gopinath P quashed the impugned order and allowed the writ petition filed by the assessee.
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