[aaykarbhavan] When reassessment proceedings held invalid, the consequential assessment order would also be invalid

 IT : Where reassessment proceedings initiated against assessee had been held to be invalid, consequential assessment order passed by Assessing Officer in remand proceedings was of no consequence and, thus, same also deserved to be set aside

■■■

[2013] 37 taxmann.com 269 (Delhi)

HIGH COURT OF DELHI

Commissioner of Income-tax

v.

Infomediary India (P.) Ltd.*

BADAR DURREZ AHMED AND VIBHU BAKHRU, JJ.

IT APPEAL NOS. 246 & 247 OF 2013 
CM NO. 7644 OF 2013†

MAY  21, 2013 

Section 147, read with section 143, of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Income escaping assessment - General [Assessment made in consequence of invalid reassessment proceedings] - Assessment year 2001-02 - In course of appellate proceedings, Tribunal upheld validity of reassessment proceedings under section 147 and remanded matter on merits to file of Assessing Officer - High Court, however, set aside Tribunal's order insofar as validity of proceedings under section 147 was concerned - In meanwhile, in remand proceedings, Assessing Officer framed assessment in respect of relevant assessment year - Whether when reassessment proceedings had been held to be invalid, consequential remand proceedings would be of no consequence - Held, yes - Whether, therefore, Tribunal was justified in setting aside impugned assessment proceedings - Held, yes [Para 4] [In favour of assessee]

Sanjeev Sabharwal and Puneet Gupta for the Appellant. Salil Kapoor, T.R. Talwal and Vikas Jain for the Respondent.

JUDGMENT

 

CM No. 7644/2013 in ITA 247/2013

Badar Durrez Ahmed, J. - The exemption is allowed subject to all just exceptions.

ITA 246/2013 & ITA 247/2013

1.1 The present appeals pertain to the assessment year 2001-02 and arise out of the common order passed by the Tribunal on 29.06.2012 in ITA No. 4777/Del/2011 and ITA No. 4778/Del/2011, respectively.

2. In an earlier round before the Tribunal, the assessee had filed appeals being ITA Nos. 3479-3480/Del/2009. The Tribunal, by virtue of its common order dated 16.10.2009, upheld the validity of proceedings under Section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and remanded the matter on merits to the the file of the Assessing Officer. Being aggrieved, the respondent/assessee preferred appeals before this court being ITA Nos. 1228-1229/2010. By a judgment and order dated 23.12.2011, this court set aside the Tribunal's order insofar as the validity of proceedings under Section 147 of the said Act were concerned. In other words, the High Court took the view that the proceedings under Section 147 of the said Act were invalid.

3. In the meanwhile, in the remand proceedings, the Assessing Officer framed the assessments on 29.11.2010 in respect of both the assessment years. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) dismissed the appeals filed therefrom by the assessee by two separate orders dated 16.08.2011. It is against those separate orders, that the assessee was in appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in ITA Nos. 4777-4778/Del/2011 which have been allowed by the Tribunal on 29-06-2012 after noticing the fact that this court had, by its judgment and order dated 23-12-2011, held the initiation of proceedings under Section 147/148 of the said Act to be invalid. We may also note that subsequently by an order dated 21-09-2012, the Special Leave Petition preferred by the revenue against the order dated 23-12-2011 in respect of ITA No. 1228/2010 also came to be dismissed.

4. Since the issue of the validity of the proceedings under Section 147 has attained finality in the sense that the said proceedings have been held to be invalid by this court, and the Special Leave Petition has also been dismissed by the Supreme Court, the Tribunal was correct in allowing the appeals filed by the respondent / assessee in respect of the remand proceedings. The remand was only consequent upon the decision of the Tribunal in the earlier round to the effect that the proceedings under Section 147 of the said Act were valid. Now, those proceedings have been held to be invalid. Hence, the consequential remand proceedings would be of no consequence. As such no interference is called for with the impugned order passed by the Tribunal. No substantial question of law arises for our consideration.

5. These appeals are dismissed.

SUNIL

Regards

Prarthana Jalan

__._,_.___

receive alert on mobile, subscribe to SMS Channel named "aaykarbhavan"
[COST FREE]
SEND "on aaykarbhavan" TO 9870807070 FROM YOUR MOBILE.

To receive the mails from this group send message to aaykarbhavan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___