Carol Infrastructure Private Limited Vs ACIT (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court has invalidated a notice issued under Section 153C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, against Carol Infrastructure Private Limited for the Assessment Year (AY) 2015-16. The court determined that the time limit for completing the assessment for that year had expired before the petition challenging the notice was filed, rendering the proceedings time-barred.
The case stems from a search and seizure operation conducted under Section 132 of the Act on October 18, 2019, involving entities belonging to the Alankit Group. Subsequently, the Assessing Officer (AO) of the searched person recorded a satisfaction note on June 24, 2022, indicating that documents found during the search belonged to or contained information related to Carol Infrastructure Private Limited, the petitioner in this case, who was an “other person” under Section 153C. The satisfaction note explicitly stated that these documents were handed over to the AO having jurisdiction over Carol Infrastructure on the same date, June 24, 2022, for necessary action under Section 153C. Following this, a notice under Section 153C was issued to Carol Infrastructure on December 19, 2023, in relation to AY 2015-16, for which the company had originally filed its return on September 30, 2015.
