Hina Prakash Shah Vs ITO (Gujarat High Court)
The Gujarat High Court allowed a writ petition challenging an order passed under Section 148A(d) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 dated 29 July 2022, the consequential notice issued under Section 148 on the same date, and the reassessment proceedings initiated under Section 147 for Assessment Year 2014-15. The petitioner contended that the notice was invalid and barred by limitation.
The Assessing Officer had originally issued a notice under Section 148 on 24 June 2021 for Assessment Year 2014-15 during the extended limitation period available under the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (TOLA). Subsequently, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal, the notice was required to be treated as a notice under Section 148A(b), in accordance with the reassessment regime introduced with effect from 1 April 2021.
The Court noted that the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal had laid down that the validity of such reassessment notices depends on whether the notice under the new reassessment regime was issued within the “surviving time” available after taking into account the original notice issued under TOLA and the directions issued in Ashish Agarwal. The Court also referred to its earlier decision in Dhanraj Govindram Kella v. ITO, which examined the concept of “surviving time” and held that notices issued beyond the surviving limitation period would be invalid.
