Surajit Ghosh Vs ITO (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court set aside an order dated March 25, 2022 passed by the Income Tax Officer under Section 154 read with Section 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The petitioner contended that the order was passed without issuing prior notice as required under Section 154(3), was barred by limitation under Section 154(7), and did not contain a Document Identification Number (DIN) as required by the CBDT circular dated August 14, 2019.
The Revenue argued that the writ petition was filed after a delay of approximately four years and therefore should not be entertained. The Court, however, found merit in the petitioner’s submissions and held that the rectification order was barred by limitation. Since the original assessment order under Section 143(3) was passed on February 25, 2015, the last date for passing a rectification order under Section 154 was March 31, 2019. The impugned order dated March 25, 2022 was therefore beyond the statutory period.
The Court also noted non-compliance with Section 154(3) due to absence of prior notice and observed that the document did not contain a DIN. Holding that the order suffered from jurisdictional error, the Court set aside the impugned order and all consequential recovery proceedings.
