Tangent Infocom Private Ltd. vs Income Tax Officer

PER MADHUMITA ROY, JM:

The instant appeal filed by the assessee is directed against the order dated 06.08.2025 of the ld. Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), NFAC, Dehi [hereinafter referred to as the Ld. CIT(A)] u/s 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) arising out of the assessment order dated 26.05.2023 passed by the Assessment Unit, Income-tax Department (hereinafter referred to as ‘the ld. AO’) under Section 147 r.w.s. 144 r.w.s. 144B of the Act for Assessment Year 2013-14.

The assessee has filed an additional ground of appeal challenging the impugned notice under Section 148 dated 25.07.2022 as barred by limitation, without jurisdiction and, therefore, the entire proceedings is vitiated and liable to be quashed. Further, the AO had no authority to issue the said notice beyond the last date permissible particularly the date saved under Section 149(1) r.w. TOLA. Since the additional ground of appeal preferred by the assessee goes to the root of the matter, we have decided to deal with the same at the very threshold.

The facts of the case are that notice under Section 148 of the Act under the old regime was issued on 29.06.2021 appearing at page 66-69 of the paper book filed before us. After the pronouncement of the judgement passed by the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Ashish Aggarwal in Civil Appeal No.3005 of 2002 it was communicated to the authorities below on 21.05.2022 under Section 148A(b) under the new regime. The time limit for compliance, therefore, was upto 04.06.2022. However, the order under Section 148A(d) was passed on 19.07.2022 and the notice was issued on 20.07.2022 under Section 148 of the Act as appearing at pages 81-83 of the paper book filed before us. As the date of original notice under Section 148 was 29.06.2021, the time surviving from the date of issuance of this notice till the expiry of the period as extended by TOLA is only one day (from 29.06.2022 till 30.06.2021). The period of deemed stay to be excluded from the date of original notice under Section 148 of the Act which is dated 29.06.2021 in the instant case till the time limit allowed to the assessee to make compliance to notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act, i.e., 04.06.2022; the time available with the Revenue to issue notice under Section 148 was ultimately from the due date of compliance by the assessee, i.e., 04.06.2022 was only seven days i.e., maximum upto 12.06.2022 whereas the actual date of issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act was dated 20.07.2022 and the deemed intimation was made on 25.07.2022 which is beyond the limitation prescribed by the Act and, hence, challenged before us. This factual matrix of the matter has not been controverted by the Ld. DR.

Thus, having regard to the fact that the notice issued under Section 148 of the Act dated 20.07.2025 having deemed intimation dated 25.07.2025 is barred by limitation as it is admittedly issued beyond the surviving period as specified by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal 2024 SCC Online SC 2693 and, therefore, the entire proceedings is found to be void ab initio and, therefore, quashed. Since the additional ground has been decided in favour of the assessee, all the other grounds raised in the appeal become academic and no order needs to be passed.

In the result, the appeal filed by the assessee is allowed.