DCIT Vs Sunil Bhala (ITAT Delhi)
The Revenue filed an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Delhi Benches against the order dated 29.12.2025 passed by the Ld. CIT(A) u/s 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for Assessment Year (AY) 2012-13. The underlying assessment order was passed by the Assessing Officer (AO) u/s 153C of the Act on 31.03.2023, assessing total income at Rs. 9,14,250/- against returned income of Rs. 7,82,769/- after making an addition of Rs. 1,31,481/- u/s 69A.
The genesis of the case involved a search and seizure operation u/s 132 conducted on 18.10.2019 on the Alankit Group, Sh. Alok K. Agarwal, and associates, where incriminating documents relating to accommodation entries and shell entities were found. Incriminating seized documents in the name of the non-searched assessee were recovered. Satisfaction notes were recorded by the AO of the searched person on 20.12.2021 and by the jurisdictional AO of the assessee on 24.12.2021. Subsequently, notice u/s 153C was issued on 28.12.2021.
Before the CIT(A), the assessee challenged the assessment on legal grounds, contending that initiation of proceedings u/s 153C for AY 2012-13 was barred by limitation as it fell beyond the 10-year block period. The Ld. CIT(A) allowed the assessee’s legal ground relying on the jurisdictional Delhi High Court judgment in PCIT v. Ojjus Medicare Pvt. Ltd. [2024] 465 ITR 101 (Delhi) as well as Supreme Court ruling in CIT v. Jasjit Singh [2023] 458 ITR 437 (SC) and Delhi High Court ruling in CIT v. RRJ Securities Ltd. [2015] 380 ITR 612 (Delhi).
