JCIT (OSD) Vs Manoj Bahl Vision Gems Pvt. Ltd. (ITAT Jaipur)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Jaipur, has dismissed an appeal filed by the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (OSD) against Manoj Bahl, owner of Vision Gems Pvt. Ltd. The appeal challenged a prior order from the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), which had set aside an assessment order for the financial year 2012-13. The CIT(A)’s decision was based on a ruling by the Rajasthan High Court in the case of Shyam Sunder Khandelwal vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, which held that the notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was legally unsustainable. The department’s appeal was also filed with a delay, which the tribunal conditionally condoned.
The core of the tribunal’s decision, however, was the maintainability of the appeal itself. The department, while pursuing the appeal, had also issued a new notice to the assessee under Section 153C of the Income Tax Act on February 4, 2025. This notice was issued after the CIT(A)’s order on January 15, 2025, but before the department filed its appeal on May 20, 2025. The assessee’s representative argued that this new notice signified the department’s acceptance of the CIT(A)’s order, making the subsequent appeal contradictory and non-maintainable.
