Asian Colour Coated Ispat Limited Vs ACIT (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that reassessment action under section 148 of the Income Tax Act post approval of the resolution plan unsustainable as validity of resolution plan not questioned at any stage.
Facts- The petitioner was incorporated as a limited company on 02 February 2005 under the Companies Act, 1956 and was stated to be engaged in the business of manufacturing, processing, importing and exporting steel products, tubes, pipes and other allied articles. On 04 April 2016, State Bank of India, asserting itself to be a financial creditor, filed an application u/s. 7 of the IBC. That petition ultimately came to be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal on 20 July 2018 when an Interim Resolution Professional came to be appointed and a moratorium enforced in terms of Section 14 of the IBC. According to the petitioners, the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax was duly apprised of the aforesaid developments in terms of a letter dated 26 July 2018.
The NCLT, by its order of 26 October 2020, ultimately came to approve the resolution plan. It is only thereafter and on 31 March 2021 that the impugned notice under Section 148 came to be issued. Thus, the respondents appear to have sought legal opinion on the question whether reassessment action could be initiated notwithstanding the Resolution Plan having been approved by the NCLT.
