Santosh Enterprises vs National Faceless Assessment ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 642 Bom

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                                           IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                                              ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION

                                                 WRIT PETITION (L) NO.           872    OF 2022


                                Santosh Enterprises (PAN : AAAFS1100K)                        ... Petitioner.

                                               Vs.

                                National Faceless Assessment Centre
                                (formerly known as National E-Assessment Centre)
                                Income Tax Dept., New Delhi & 3 Ors.                         ... Respondents.
                                                                     ---
                                Mr. Devendra H. Jain, Advocate a/w. Ms. Radha Halbe for the Petitioner.
                                Mr. Suresh Kumar, Advocate for the Respondents-Revenue.
                                                                     ---

                                                         CORAM : K.R. SHRIRAM & R.N. LADDHA, JJ.
                                                         DATED : JANUARY 18, 2022

                                                                               (Through Video Conferencing)
                                P.C. :


                                1.       Mr. Jain submitted that in this case the mandatory notice required to be
                                sent under section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (said "Act") was neither
                                issued nor served upon the Petitioner and, therefore, the order dated 19 April,
                                2021 passed under section 144 read with section 144B, has to be set aside.


                                2.       We have also considered the Assessment Order dated 19 April, 2021. In
                                paragraph-1 of the said order it is recorded that notice under section 143(2) of
                                the said Act dated 30 September, 2019          was issued and served by ITBA
                                application electronically   upon the Assessee.        Mr. Jain submits that this
                                statement in the Assessment Order is incorrect inasmuch as the screen shots of
                                the said notices annexed to the Petition, do not even mention the date or
                                addresses or contents of attachment. In our writ jurisdiction, under section 226
             Digitally signed
                                of the Constitution of India, we are not really keen to examine this factual
             by SHALIKRAM
SHALIKRAM    PRALHADRAO
PRALHADRAO   BOREY
BOREY        Date: 2022.01.20
             19:18:04 +0530




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aspect. Therefore, as suggested by the learned Counsel, the following order is
passed :
                                        ORDER

(a) Assessment Order dated 19 April, 2021 is quashed and set aside.

(b) The Assessing Officer shall provide evidence to Petitioner that notice under section 143(2) of the Act was provided at the e-mail address mentioned in Petitioner's profile at Exh. A-3 to the Petition. This shall be provided within three weeks of this order being uploaded.

(c) Petitioner shall, thereafter, file its response to the Assessing Officer.

(d) The Assessing Officer shall thereafter give a personal hearing to Petitioner and the date and time of personal hearing shall be intimated at-least 7 days in advance.

(e) The Assessing Officer shall thereafter pass assessment order in which he shall raise an issue whether notice under section 143(2) has been served and answer the same with reasons. If the Assessing Officer is going to rely on any judgments or orders of any Court or Tribunal, he shall make copies thereof available to Petitioner's representative and Petitioner shall be given an opportunity to deal with or distinguish those judgments or orders.

(f) The Assessment Order shall be passed on or before 31 May, 2022.

         (g)      Petition disposed with no order as to costs with a clarification

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that we have not made any observations on merits of the matter.

(h) All rights and contentions of Petitioner even on merits are kept open.

(i) In view of the above, the notices issued under section 156 and section 270A dated 19 April, 2021 and notice issued under section 272A (1)(d) dated 24 August, 2021 are also quashed and set aside.

          (R.N. LADDHA,J.)                              (K.R. SHRIRAM, J.)

                                           .....




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