Reassessment – Sanction u/s. 151 – A. Y. 2007-08 – In the absence of the requisite sanction u/s. 151 the notice u/s. 148 will be invalid

For the A. Y. 2007-08,
the Assessing Officer issued notice u/s. 148 without obtaining the
prior sanction u/s. 151 of the Act. The objection raised on this count
was countered by relying on section 292B of the Act.

The Rajasthan High Court allowed the writ petition challenging the notice and held as under:
“i)
The objection has been rejected by the ITO citing the reason that
required sanction of CIT was not taken due to oversight that assessment
of the assessee firm had already been completed u/s. 143(3). It was
stated that mistake was committed inadvertently and is curable by
recourse to section 292B.
ii) That plea is liable to be rejected
because when specific provision has been inserted in the proviso to
section 151(1), as a prerequisite condition for issuance of notice,
namely, sanction of the CIT or the Chief CIT, the Assessing Officer
cannot find escape route for not doing so by relying on section 292B.
Resort to section 292B cannot be made to validate an action, which has
been rendered illegal due to breach of mandatory condition of the
sanction on satisfaction of Chief CIT or CIT under proviso to
sub-section (1) of section 151.
iii) This is an inherent lacunae
affecting the very correctness of the notice u/s. 148 and is such which
is not curable by recourse to section 292B.”