Ram Prasath Muthunarayanan Reddy Vs ACIT (Madras High Court)
The Madras High Court dismissed a batch of intra-Court appeals challenging assessment orders dated 30.03.2022 for six assessment years passed under Section 153A read with Section 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The appellant contended that no order under Section 127 had been passed and served and that the assessments suffered from limitation.
The Revenue stated that the appellant had been issued notice regarding centralisation, acknowledged it and conveyed no objection, following which the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax passed an order dated 16.03.2021 under Section 127(2). The order was communicated to the appellant by letter dated 17.03.2021 and uploaded on the income-tax portal.
Core Issue: Whether the assessment orders could be challenged as without jurisdiction on the ground that no order under section 127(2) transferring/centralising the assessee’s case had been passed or served.
High Court Finding: The Division Bench rejected the jurisdictional contention. It noted that the Revenue had specifically stated in its detailed counter-affidavit that the section 127(2) order was passed after the assessee conveyed his no objection, was intimated to him and was uploaded on the portal. These factual assertions were not denied by filing a rejoinder before the writ court. The assessee, therefore, could not raise a contrary jurisdictional contention for the first time in the intra-Court appeals.
