Case Law Details
Brief of the Case
Delhi High Court held In the case of Dushyant Kumar Jain vs. DCIT held that it is only the AO who has issued the original assessment order under Section 143 (3) ,who is empowered to exercise powers under Section 147/148 to re-open the assessment. This is because he alone would be in a position to form reasons to believe that some income of that particular AY has escaped assessment. This again cannot be based on a mere change of opinion. Further, in terms of Section 151 of the Act such a move will have to have the prior approval of the CIT. Under the scheme of the Act, if a superior officer forms an opinion that the original assessment order is prejudicial to the interests of the Revenue, recourse can be had to Section 263. In any event the question of an ITO who is not the AO who passed the original assessment order under Section 143 (3) for particular AY, exercising the powers under Sections 147/148 to re-open that assessment does not arise.
Facts of the Case
The Assessee filed a return of income for AY 2007-08 on 18th September, 2007 declaring an income of Rs. 38,76,580. The DCIT, Circle 39(1), who is the Assessing Officer of the Assessee, issued a notice to the Assessee under Section 142(1) raising certain queries and calling for records. These were furnished by the Assessee and on 13th April 2009, an assessment order was passed by the AO under Section 143(3). On 14th March, 2014, the first impugned notice was issued to the Assessee under Section 148 by the ITO, Ward 39(2) recording the reasons for reopening of the assessment. Immediately, on receipt of the above reasons, the Petitioner addressed a letter dated 9th April, 2014 to the ITO, Ward 39(2) inter alia, pointing out that he does not have any jurisdiction over a case which was completed by the AO who was the DCIT, Circle 39(1).
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The HC Ruling has brought to
surface an additional dimension to the thus far prevailing never-ending controversies in the matter of scope for AO to invoke jurisdiction and initiate action under section 147. The
lastly reported SC Ruling in the case of
Zuari Estate (for short), giving a fresh lease of life and an added momentum to
such controversies so to say, has been discussed in critique / write-ups published and shared in public domain.