Amrit Bottlers Private Limited Vs DCIT (ITAT Delhi)
Summary: The Delhi Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal allowed the appeal of Amrit Bottlers Private Limited for Assessment Year 2023-24 and quashed a penalty of ₹6,25,86,306 levied under Section 271AAB of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The penalty had been imposed by the Assessing Officer by order dated 30.03.2025 and was subsequently sustained by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-24, New Delhi, in an order dated 28.10.2025. The assessee challenged the penalty principally on the legal ground that the notices initiating the penalty proceedings did not disclose the particular limb of Section 271AAB under which the penalty was proposed.
The assessee pointed to three penalty notices dated 18.07.2024, 02.09.2024 and 04.11.2024 and submitted that none of them specified the corresponding limb of Section 271AAB. It relied upon the coordinate Bench decision in DCIT Vs Sanjay Singh, ITA No. 6942/Del/2019, contending that failure to communicate the precise charge was fatal to the penalty proceedings. The Tribunal reproduced and adopted the detailed reasoning of that coordinate Bench decision, which dealt with the requirement that a penalty notice clearly communicate the statutory charge to the assessee. The reproduced discussion referred to authorities dealing both with the nature of “undisclosed income” under Section 271AAB and the invalidity of vague penalty notices.
