The Mumbai Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) held that no fresh notice was required to be issued under Section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act on change of Income Tax Officer, in the case of Moraj Group Co-Founder Priya Mohan Gurnani.
Priya Mohan Gurnani, the Assessee and Co-Founder of Moraj Group, filed a series of seven appeals covering the assessment years 2010-11 to 2016-17, addressing common issues arising from a single search and seizure action.
Both parties acknowledged that the appeals shared common grounds, facts, and circumstances across these years. Consequently, the authorized representative presented unified arguments encompassing all matters, while the departmental representative defended the lower authorities’ orders with consistent arguments.
In ground number 4 of the appeal, assessee argued that it is an invalid assessment as the order is passed without issue of notice under Section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act.
The Assessee was represented by CA Pradip Kapasi and Revenue by Manoj kumar Sinha, Senior Department Representative.
We find that the facts clearly shows that after the issue of notice under section 153A on 5/1/2017, a notice under section 143 (2) dated 24/1/2017 was served upon the assessee and acknowledgement for receipt of the same by the assessee was placed on record. It is the claim of the assessee that no notice was issued under section 143 (2) by the new incumbent, i.e. Deputy Commissioner of income tax Central Circle 5 (2), Mumbai within the permitted time.
Therefore, the assessment proceedings were conducted without issue of any notice under section 143 (2) by the successor assessing officer after application to the settlement commission on its revival of jurisdiction by the assessing officer.
The assessee heavily relied on the decision of courts in Hotel blue moon, Virendra Devi Dixit, Pavan Gupta, B Satya Narayana and Pradeep K Soni.
It is not the case of the assessee that no notice under section 143 (2) has been issued. Perusal of all these decisions shows that the notice is required to be issued under section 143 (2) of the act prior to making the assessment.
Rival parties-department submitted before the tribunal that they intend to raise similar arguments as advanced in those earlier assessment years, as there is no change in the facts and circumstances of the case.
In this particular assessment, the assessing officer has issued notice under section 143 (2) of the act which has been served on the assessee and this fact has not been denied.
On change of jurisdiction by a statutory order, there is no provision of law that search new incumbents should also issue a new notice under Section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act and that too within the permitted time.
In view of this, this ground of the appeal of the assessee was dismissed by the tribunal bench of Prashant Maharishi, Accountant Member and Kavitha Rajagopal, Judicial Member.
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