Abhijit Paul Vs Union of India (Tripura High Court)
Tripura High Court held that reopening of assessment u/s. 148 of the Income Tax Act results into mere change of opinion as reopening is based on the same material as that of original assessment order. Accordingly, reopening of assessment resulting into change of opinion is bad-in-law and hence liable to be quashed.
Facts- Vide the present petition, the Petitioner has sought quashing of notice u/s. 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax for the assessment year 2014-2015 and the order dated 21.02.2022 rejecting the objection of the petitioner issued by the Additional/Joint/ Deputy/Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Department. The Petitioner prayed for a direction upon the respondents not to proceed further on the basis of the notice u/s. 148 of the Act of 1961 and drop the proceedings after considering the objection dated 21.02.2022. Petitioner also prayed for an interim stay of the impugned notice.
Conclusion- Held that the assessment was carried out at the first instance on the basis of the materials collected during search and seizure operation including the ledgers/cash book of different years found in the tally data of the petitioner and also the appraisal report based thereupon. The Appraisal report was placed before the Assessing Officer to examine the claim. If the same material formed the basis of the Assessing Officer to pass the original assessment order, the reopening of the assessment by issuance of notice under Section 148 of the Act would be a mere change of opinion of the Assessing Officer and not a case of reason to believe on basis of the material which has subsequently come to his notice and/or which the assessee failed to truly and fully disclose during assessment proceedings. This is a case where the assessee had not submitted any books of account, ledgers, bills, vouchers or supporting evidence and the Assessing Officer proceeded to assess his returns on the basis of the materials collected during search and seizure operation including the appraisal report based upon that. Therefore, reopening of assessment on the ground that the income liable to tax has escaped assessment as per the ingredients of Section 147 of the Act either on account of failure to truly and fully disclose the full details of the income derived by the petitioner or on the basis of materials subsequently coming to the notice of the Assessing Officer are not satisfied. Therefore, the initiation of the reassessment proceedings by issuance of notice under Section 148 following the provisions of Section 147 of the Act is bad in law.
