Sangeeta Sharma Vs ACIT (ITAT Delhi)
Share Sale Examined in Original Assessment: Reopening After Four Years Quashed
Disclosure in the assessment record matters, even when the assessment order is brief. The Delhi Bench of the ITAT has held that an Assessing Officer cannot reopen a completed scrutiny assessment after four years merely by stating that the original order did not discuss a particular transaction. Where the assessee had furnished the relevant details during the original proceedings, the Revenue must establish a failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts before it can cross the four-year restriction in the first proviso to Section 147.
The ruling was delivered in Ms. Sangeeta Sharma v. ACIT, ITA No. 7605/Del/2025, AY 2012–13, on 28 September 2026.
The share transaction was already before the AO
The assessee had sold 7,00,000 shares of a company formerly known as Mahadev Stock Broking Company Limited and later named Hum Tum Builders Limited. The sale consideration stated before the Tribunal was ₹9.73 crore. In her return, the assessee reported a long-term capital loss after claiming the indexed cost of the shares.
The original assessment was completed under Section 143(3) on 28 January 2015, accepting the returned income. This was not a case in which the share transaction surfaced for the first time during reassessment. The original AO’s questionnaire had specifically sought details of investments, dividend income, and purchases and sales of shares. In response, the assessee furnished details of the capital loss, the acquisition and sale of the shares, share certificates, and supporting documents.
