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Judgment
PER YOGESH KUMAR, U.S. JM:
The captioned Appeals are filed by the respective Assessees’ and the Revenue by challenging the respective orders of the Ld. CIT(A) pertaining to Assessment Year 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Since a common issue is involved in all the above Appeals. The appeals are heard together. In Ground No. 1 to 3 of Assessees’ Appeal in ITA No. 6121/Del/2025, 5755/Del/2025 and in the application filed under Rule 27 of ITAT Rule filed by the Assessee in ITA No.7998/D/2025 and 6915/Del/2025, Assessees have raised a legal issue challenging the validity of issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ('Act' for short).
The Ld. Counsel for the Assessee vehemently submitted that the notice u/s 148 of the Act has been issued without valid prior sanction u/s 151 of the Act and further submitted that the so-called approval of the PCIT Central Bearing No. 6355 is not at all pertaining to the Assessees/Appellant mentioned above. Thus, sought for allowing Assessees’legal ground No. 1 to 3 in ITA No. 6121, 5755/Del/2025 is also sought for allowing the application filed under Rule 27 of the Rules filed by the Assessee in ITA No.7998/Del/2025 and 6915/Del/2025 and also sought for allowing the Appeals of the Assessees and dismissal of the Appeal of the Revenue.
Per contra, the Ld. Departmental Representative submitted that prior sanction u/s 151 of the Act has been duly obtained before issuance of notice u/s 148 of the Act and further by relying on the orders of the Lower Authorities, sought for dismissing the contentions of the Ld. Assessee's Representative.
We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record. In the present case, a Search and seizure operation u/s 132 of the Act was carried out in the case of the assessees on 03/08/2022. Notice dated 29/03/2023 u/s 148 of the Act was issued. As per the said notice, the notice u/s 148 of the Act has been issued after obtaining approval no. 6355 from PCIT (Central) Delhi. As could be seen from the said approval no. 6355 from PCIT (Central) Delhi, the said approval does not pertain to any of the assessees who have filed the captioned Appeals. For the sake of ready reference, one of such notice issued under section 148 issued by the AO is reproduced as under: -
It is evident that in the notices issued u/s 148, it has been stated "The notice is being issued after obtaining the prior approval of the PCIT (Central), Delhi - 2 has been accorded on date 24/03/2023 vide Reference No. 6355".Further, it is observed that above approval reference No. 6355 taken to obtain sanction u/s 151 of the Act belongs to different Assessee and not to the case of the present Assessees who are under Appeal before us. The relevant portion sanction u/s 151 of the Act of PCIT dated 24/03/2023 is reproduced below for ready reference:
From the above extract of Sanction u/s 151 of the Act,it is evident that in Para 7, the assessing officer has submitted the draft notices in t the case of Tej Ram Dharam Paulbefore PCIT for A.Y. 2019-20 to A.Υ. 2021-22. Thus, as on 24/03/2023 there was no sanction given by PCIT for issuance of notice u/s 148 of the Act against the Assessees herein.
We have also verified the notices issued in the case of other Assessees mentioned above wherein Appeal in ITA No. 6121/Del/2025(TRDP Happy World Pvt. Ltd. A.Y 2021-22), 5756/Del/2025 (Malwa Packaging and 6916/Del/2025 (Vidya Polymer (Rule 27 by the Assessee)) and found that identical notices have been issued pursuant to mentioning the approval detail which is not at all belongs to the respective Assessees.
In view of the above, we find merits in legal Assessees’ ground No. 1 to 3 in ITA No. 6121, 5755/Del/2025 and the application filed under Rule 27 of the Rules filed by the Assessee in ITA No.7998/Del/2025 and 6915/Del/2025, as the notices issued under Section 148 of the Act itself is bad in law and without jurisdiction the respective notices issued u/s 148 of the Act against the Assessee for the respective year under consideration, the subsequent Assessment Orders passed are hereby quashed. Accordingly, Assessees’ ground No. 1 to 3 in ITA No. 6121, 5755/Del/2025 and the application filed under Rule 27 of the Rules filed by the Assessee in ITA No.7998/Del/2025 and 6915/Del/2025 are allowed and the respective assessment orders for the respective year under consideration are hereby quashed.
Accordingly, Appeal of the Assessee in ITA No. 6121/Del/2025 (A.Y 2019-20) and ITA No. 5755/Del/2025 (A.Y 2021-22) are allowed.
Since, we have allowed the Assessees’ Appeal for Assessment Year 2019-20 and 2021-22, Revenue’s Appeal in ITA No. 7889/Del/2025 and ITA No. 7585/Del/2025 are dismissed.
Since, we have allowed the application filed by the Assessee under Rule 27 of the Rules in ITA No.7998/Del/2025 and 6915/Del/2025 and quashed the assessment order, the Appeals of the Revenue render in-fructuous. Accordingly, Revenue’s Appeal in ITA No.7998/Del/2025 and 6915/Del/2025 are dismissed.