PCIT Vs Agroha Fincap Ltd. (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that non-satisfaction of conditions for reopening assessment u/s. 153C of the Income Tax Act doesn’t prohibit AO from taking recourse u/s. 147. Thus, reopening u/s. 147 based on information from investigation wing justified.
Facts- The Assessing Officer had issued the notice u/s. 148 of the Act. The assessment proceedings culminated in an assessment order passed u/s. 147 of the Act, whereby AO made an addition of ₹25,45,000/- comprising of ₹25,00,000/- u/s. 68 of the Act and ₹45,000/- u/s. 69C of the Act.
CIT(A) rejected the appeal of the assessee. Whereas, ITAT Allowed the appeal on the ground that the initiation of reassessment proceedings under Section 147/148 of the Act were invalid. Being aggrieved, revenue has preferred the present appeal.
Conclusion- Held that in the present case, no satisfaction note was recorded by the AO of the search person or forwarded to the AO of the Assessee. Thus, in any event the conditions for reopening of the assessment under Section 153C of the Act were not satisfied. For this reason as well, recourse to Section 147 of the Act based on information as received by the Investigation Wing was not precluded. The AO could not be faulted for proceedings under Section 147/148 of the Act instead of Section 153C of the Act.
