Gopal Tukaram Bitode Vs ITO (Bombay High Court)
Summary: Bombay High Court declined to entertain writ petitions challenging assessment orders passed under Section 147 read with Section 144B of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The petitioners contended that since reassessment arose from information connected with search and seizure proceedings against M/s. Renuka Mata Multi-State Urban Co-operative Credit Society Limited, proceedings ought to have been initiated under Section 153C rather than Section 148. The Revenue maintained that no seized books, documents or assets pertaining to the petitioners had been received and that reassessment was initiated on information uploaded on the Insight Portal and flagged as high-risk CRIU/VRU information.
The Court found this stand sufficient for declining extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226. It also noted that the petitioners had responded to the show-cause notices and permitted the assessments to be completed without raising the Section 153C jurisdictional objection at that stage. The Court clarified that it was not holding that jurisdictional objections could never be raised subsequently, but in the facts of these cases an efficacious statutory appellate remedy was available. While recognising that a writ can be entertained where an impugned exercise is without jurisdiction, the Court held that the petitioners should contest the assessment orders on merits through the statutory remedy. The writ petitions were accordingly dismissed without examination of the assessment orders on merits.
