Shree Vishvamurte Tradinvest Pvt. Ltd.Vs ITO (ITAT Ahmedabad)
Fatal Jurisdictional Error -Notice u/s 148 Issued After Surviving Time- —ITAT Ahmedabad Quashes Entire ₹115 Cr Reassessment
Assessee, a Pvt Ltd company dealing in shares, filed ROI declaring ₹9,00,890. AO reopened assessment alleging penny stock trading of ₹3.85 crore & completed reassessment u/s 147 r.w.s.144B making massive additions aggregating ₹115.22 crore, taxing them u/s 115BBE.
CIT(A) partly allowed Assessee’s appeal & partly confirmed additions on penny stock transactions & alleged bogus loans. Both Assessee & Revenue filed cross appeals before ITAT.
Assessee raised an additional legal ground challenging the validity of notice u/s 148 dated 30.08.2022, contending it was issued beyond limitation when examined in light of TOLA, Ashish Agarwal (SC 2022), Rajeev Bansal (SC 2024), & Gujarat High Court rulings in Dhanraj Govindram Kella (2025) & Rakesh Rameshchandra Patel (2025). As per the statutory matrix:
- Original old-regime 148 notice (TOLA) was issued on 29.06.2021
- Surviving time available only 2 days till 30.06.2021
- AO supplied 148A(b) material on 30.05.2022
- Latest permissible date for issuing new-regime 148 notice = 27.06.2022
- AO, however, issued notice u/s 148 on 30.08.2022, i.e., after expiry of surviving time
ITAT held that in view of Supreme Court directions in Rajeev Bansal, any 148 notice issued beyond surviving period is invalid. Thus, notice dated 30.08.2022 was time-barred, causing entire reassessment to be void & without jurisdiction. Accordingly, Tribunal quashed the reassessment order & allowed Assessee’s appeal on the jurisdictional ground alone. As the foundation (reassessment) itself was invalid, Revenue’s appeal automatically failed & was dismissed.
