February 2009
Reassessment : S. 147 and S. 148 : Reason to believe : AO recording reasons and AO issuing notice u/s.148 different : Notice not valid.
By K. B. Bhujle, Advocate
Reading Time 2 mins
New Page 1
52 Reassessment : S. 147 and S. 148 of
Income-tax Act, 1961 : A.Ys. 1990-91 and 1991-92 : Reason to believe : AO
recording reasons and AO issuing notice u/s.148 different : Notice u/s.148 not
valid.
[Hynoup Food and Oil Industries Ltd. v. ACIT, 307
ITR 115 (Guj.)]
For the A.Ys. 1990-91 and 1991-92 the Assessing Officer
issued notices u/s.148 for reopening the assessments. But the Assessing
Officer who had issued the notice was different from the officer who had
recorded the reasons.
On a writ petition filed by the assessee challenging the
validity of the notice u/s.148, the Gujarat High Court quashed the notice and
held as under :
“(i) The opening portion of S. 147 of the Income-tax Act,
1961, stipulates that action may be initiated if the Assessing Officer has
reason to believe that any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment
for any assessment year. This provision must be read in conjunction with S.
148(2) of the Act which mandates that the Assessing Officer shall, before
issuing any notice u/s.148 of the Act, record his reasons for issuing the
notice. It is, therefore, clear that the officer recording the reasons
u/s.148(2) and the officer issuing notice u/s.148(1) has to be the same
person.
(ii) In the instant case, the officer who had issued the
notice u/s.148 was different from the officer who had recorded the reasons
and hence, the notices for both these years were invalid and deserved to be
quashed.”
