ACIT Vs Marico Limited (Supreme Court of India)
In Marico Limited v. ACIT, the Supreme Court of India upheld the quashing of a reassessment notice issued under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act for AY 2014–15. During the original assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer had raised specific queries on 25 September 2017, which were duly answered by the assessee through letters dated 10 October 2017 and 21 December 2017. After considering these responses, the AO passed the assessment order on 30 January 2018.
Subsequently, the Revenue sought to reopen the assessment through a notice dated 27 March 2019 on the very same issue. The Bombay High Court held that once a query is raised during assessment and the explanation is accepted—whether expressly discussed in the assessment order or not—it amounts to formation of an opinion by the Assessing Officer. Reopening such an issue would therefore amount to a mere change of opinion, which is impermissible in law.
The Supreme Court agreed with this reasoning and dismissed the Revenue’s Special Leave Petition, reaffirming that reassessment cannot be used as a tool to revisit matters already examined in the original assessment proceedings.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT/ORDER
Delay condoned.
In the present matter, the assessment order was passed on 30.01.2018 as regards the Assessment Year 2014-15
