DCIT Vs Kamalkunj Commercial P. Ltd. (ITAT Delhi)
Delhi ITAT upheld the CIT(A)’s order deleting additions made u/s 153C, holding that the assessment years under consideration lay outside the permissible six-year block reckoned from the date of satisfaction/receipt of seized material, not from the date of search.
A search u/s 132 was conducted on Net Ram Group on 12–13 March 2019. Based on seized documents indicating alleged fund layering through Kolkata-based entities, AO issued notice u/s 153C to the assessee on 09-08-2021. The CIT(A) quashed the assessment, following Supreme Court in CIT v. Jasjit Singh & Delhi HC in CIT v. RRJ Securities Pvt Ltd, which held that the six-year period for “other person” assessments u/s 153C must be computed from the date of recording satisfaction or receipt of material by that AO, treating such date as the “deemed date of search”.
Since the satisfaction in this case was recorded in FY 2021-22, the deemed search year was A.Y. 2022-23, and hence the six immediately preceding years spanned A.Ys. 2016-17 to 2021-22. The impugned years (2013-14 to 2015-16) thus fell beyond the statutory block, rendering the proceedings void. The Tribunal found no infirmity in CIT(A)’s reasoning & confirmed deletion of the additions.
