Jagdamba Petroleum India Vs DCIT (ITAT Delhi)
Undated Satisfaction Note Is Fatal: ITAT Delhi Quashes 153C Assessments as Time-Barred
Delhi the ITAT quashed the assessments framed u/s 153C on the ground of limitation and lack of jurisdiction.
The proceedings were initiated pursuant to a third-party search on 15-01-2021. The Assessee raised additional legal grounds contending that both the satisfaction note of the searched person as well as that of the Assessee were undated, and that there was no evidence on record regarding the date of handing over of seized material by the AO of the searched person to the AO of the Assessee. The Tribunal admitted the additional grounds, holding them to be purely legal, following NTPC Ltd. (SC).
Relying on the jurisdictional Delhi High Court judgment in PCIT Vs. Ojjus Medicare Pvt. Ltd. (2024) 161 taxmann.com 160 (Delhi), the ITAT held that where satisfaction notes are undated or unavailable, the date of issuance of notice u/s 153C becomes the relevant date for computing the block period. In the present case, notice u/s 153C was issued on 10-05-2023, making AY 2024-25 the deemed search year, and the block of six preceding years ran only from AYs 2018-19 to 2023-24.
Since AYs 2015-16 and 2017-18 fell outside the permissible block, the Tribunal held that the assessments for both years were barred by limitation and hence void ab initio. Consequently, the assessments were quashed, and the Tribunal refrained from examining the issues on merits, leaving them open.
Accordingly, the appeals were partly allowed on legal grounds.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT DELHI
