Saumil Avinash Baheti Vs ITO (Gujarat High Court)
Gujarat High Court, on July 25, 2025, quashed a reassessment notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, to Saumil Avinash Baheti for Assessment Year 2017-18. The court’s decision hinged on the tax department’s failure to issue a mandatory fresh notice under Section 148A(b) following the directives of the Supreme Court in the case of Union of India and others vs. Shri Ashish Agarwal and others (444 ITR pg 1 SC).
The petitioner argued that while the impugned notice was dated March 31, 2021, it was served via email on April 1, 2021. This distinction became critical in light of the Supreme Court’s May 4, 2022, judgment in Ashish Agarwal, which addressed the validity of reassessment notices issued under the old regime after April 1, 2021, when the new faceless reassessment provisions came into effect. The Supreme Court had directed that such notices, issued between April 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021, should be treated as show-cause notices under the new Section 148A(b), necessitating a fresh Section 148 notice after adhering to due procedure.
The tax department, in its affidavit-in-reply, confirmed that the notice dated March 31, 2021, was indeed served on April 1, 2021. It also acknowledged that, in compliance with the Ashish Agarwal judgment and CBDT Instruction No. 01/2022, this notice should be treated as a Section 148A(b) notice, requiring subsequent fresh proceedings. However, during the hearing, the Senior Standing Counsel for the respondent explicitly admitted that no fresh notice under Section 148A(b) had been issued as per the Supreme Court’s directions.
