Commissioner of Income Tax vs Smt. Suman Waman Chaudhary

While holding that the notice issued was without jurisdiction, the Tribunal noted that u/s 151 the Assessing Officer who is below the rank of Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner has to record the reasons and the said reasons require approval of the Deputy Commissioner or the Joint Commissioner and he has to satisfy that the reasons recorded by the Assessing Officer are sufficient for issue of such notice. The Tribunal has recorded a finding of fact that the income tax Officer has recorded the reasons on December 6,1989, and on the same date notice was issued. The Tribunal has further held that the contention of the assessee that the approval of the Deputy Commissioner was not obtained by the income tax Officer before issuance of notice has not been controverted by the learned Departmental representative and on this and other reasons it is held that the notice is not in conformity with the section and is without jurisdiction. This finding of the income tax Appellate Tribunal that prior approval was required has not been controverted. Only ground made is that the income tax Appellate Tribunal concerning section 151(2) proceeded erroneously. In our opinion, this is a clear finding and u/s 151(2) prior approval of the concerned authority before issuance of notice is required. Considering the finding recorded by the income tax Appellate Tribunal u/s 151, it is not necessary to discuss the finding on the point of issue of notice u/s 292B. In view of the above facts, the order of the income tax Appellate Tribunal cannot be faulted and consequently the appeal dismissed.