AO cannot assess other ‘escaped income’ if reason for issue of Notice under section 148 dropped

ACIT vs. Major Deepak Mehta (Chattisgarh High Court) – The Bombay High Court in Jet Airways (supra) observed that after issuing a notice under Section 148, the income which has initially formed a reason to believe that the income has escaped assessment, but as a matter of fact has not escaped assessment. The AO cannot proceed to assess some other income independently, however, it was observed that it is open for the AO to issue a fresh notice under Section 148 and proceed thereafter. The High Court of Delhi in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (supra), has taken the similar view. The assessee...