DCIT Vs Ashwani Kumar Gupta (ITAT Delhi)
ITAT Delhi: Section 153C block period reckoning must be from date of receipt of seized material by AO of other person — not from date of search
Delhi ITAT dismissed Revenue’s appeals, holding that assessment u/s 153C was barred by limitation since the block period had to be counted from the date of receipt of seized documents by AO of other person, not from the date of search.
A search was conducted on Alankit Group on 18-10-2019 & certain seized papers were later found to pertain to the Assessee. These were handed over to AO of the Assessee on 22-06-2022 & notice u/s 153C was issued on 23-06-2022. CIT(A) quashed the assessment, holding that under the first proviso to section 153C(1), the reference point for computing the six-year or ten-year block is the date when the AO of the other person actually receives the seized material.
Tribunal, following Supreme Court in CIT v. Jasjit Singh & Delhi High Court in PCIT v. Ojjus Medicare (P) Ltd., upheld that since the material was received in FY 2022-23, the permissible ten-year block extended only up to A.Y. 2013-14. Therefore, A.Y. 2012-13 lay outside the permissible block, rendering the assessment void.
