Patran Foods Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India and others (Punjab And Haryana High Court)
Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the same assessing officer is required to pass an order under the new scheme after giving notice under Section 148 of the old Act. Thus, all the writ petition are dismissed.
Facts- Question of law arising vide the present writ petition is whether the proceedings could have been initiated and continued by the jurisdictional assessing officer and the assessment order could have been passed by him in cases where the original notices issued by the jurisdictional assessing officer were treated to have been issued in terms of the new regime by the Supreme Court in Union of India and others vs Ashish Aggarwal 2023 (1) SCC 617 and have been also treated within limitation in terms of judgment of the Supreme Court in Union of India vs Rajeev Bansal 2024 INSC 754.
Conclusion- The entire scheme of the Act specifically requires the same assessing officer, who issues notices to conduct an enquiry and considered their reply in terms of Section 148A. Thereafter, the same assessing officer is required to pass an order under the new scheme after giving notice under Section 148 of the old Act. In our considered opinion, if we examine the provisions of present situation, which has arisen on account of treating the notices issued under Section 148 of the Act as notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act, the natural corollary would be that such replies which may be received to the notice issued under Section 148A(b) of the Act, would be examined by the same assessing officer, who had originally issued the notices under the old regime.
