Virendra Babulal Patel vs Deputy Commissioner Of Income Tax, ...
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Gujarat High Court

Virendra Babulal Patel vs Deputy Commissioner Of Income Tax, ... on 30 September, 2025

Author: Bhargav D. Karia

Bench: Bhargav D. Karia

                                                                                                                  NEUTRAL CITATION




                             C/SCA/8579/2023                                        ORDER DATED: 30/09/2025

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                                    IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD

                                      R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 8579 of 2023

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                                           VIRENDRA BABULAL PATEL
                                                    Versus
                                DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, CIRCLE - 1(2)1
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                       Appearance:
                       MR TEJ SHAH(5743) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
                       MR.VARUN K.PATEL(3802) for the Respondent(s) No. 1
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                         CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA
                               and
                               HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE PRANAV TRIVEDI

                                                           Date : 30/09/2025

                                                  ORAL ORDER

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA)

1. Heard learned advocate Mr. Tej Shah

for the petitioner and learned advocate

Mr. Dev Patel for learned Senior Standing

Counsel Mr. Varun K. Patel for the

respondent.

2. This petition is filed under Article

226 of the Constitution of India

challenging the notice under section 148

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of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (For short

"the Act") dated 29.07.2022 on the ground

that the notice would be invalid and time

barred.

3. Brief facts of the case are that the

respondent Assessing Officer issued notice

dated 30.06.2021 under section 148 of the

Act for the Assessment Year 2013-2014

during the extended time period as per

Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of

Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020

[(2020) 422 ITR (St.) 116] (For short

"TOLA").

4. In view of the decision of Hon'ble

Apex Court in case of Union of India and

others v. Ashish Agarwal reported in

(2022) 444 ITR 1 (SC), the aforesaid

notice was to be treated as notice under

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section 148A(b) of the Act which has come

into statute with effect from 01.04.2021.

5. The Hon'ble Apex Court in case of

Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal reported

in (2024) 469 ITR 46 (SC) has laid down

the law to consider such notice as valid

notice or invalid notice depending upon

the surviving time left between the date

of issuance of notice under section 148 of

the Act read with section 3(1) of TOLA

upto 30.06.2021 and the issuance of notice

under section 148 pursuant to the

directions issued by the Hon'ble Apex

Court in case of Ashish Agarwal (supra).

6. This Court in case of Dhanraj

Govindram Kella v. Income Tax Officer,

Ward(2), Surendranagar (Judgment dated

08.07.2025 rendered in Special Civil

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Application No.6387 of 2023 and allied

matters) has considered in detail the

submissions made by both the sides and has

held as under:

"65. The alternative contention of the petitioner as to whether notices would be valid notice or invalid notice considering 'surviving time' between the date of the issuance of notices under TOLA and 30th June, 2021 or not is required to be considered and for that each matter has to be considered separately on the basis of the facts of case considering the date of issuance of notices under section 148 under TOLA by the Revenue and thereafter date of supplying information to the assessee and date of passing of order under section 148A(d) and date of issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act so as to consider whether issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act is within 'surviving time' as per the direction of Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra) or not.

66. So far as Assessment Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 are concerned, the period of three

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years from the end of the assessment year would be over prior to 20.03.2020 and the period of six years would be over between 20.03.2020 and 30.06.2021.

Therefore, the notices issued under section 148 of the Act under old regime between 01.04.2021 and 30.06.2021 as per TOLA, will be a valid notice if the notice under section 148 of the Act under new regime is issued within the period of 'surviving time' as per the directions issued by Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra). For the Assessment Years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 are concerned, the notice issued under section 148 of the Act under old regime between 01.04.2021 and 30.06.2021 under TOLA would be considered to be issued within three years from the end of the relevant assessment year as three years would complete within the period of 20.03.2020 and 30.06.2021.

67. Therefore, in facts of these petitions, following data is required to be considered to find out 'surviving time' to decide as to whether the impugned notices under section 148 of the Act issued under the new regime as per the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Ashish Agarwal (supra) would be valid notice or not in

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view of the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra):

SCA NO AY Date of No of days Date of notice under of surviving providing section 148 time information under TOLA available under till section 30.06.2021 148A(b) 6387/2023 2013-2014 17.06.2021 13 26.05.2022 5688/2023 2014-2015 09.06.2021 21 23.05.2022 22260/2022 2016-2017 30.06.2021 1 23.05.2022 996/2023 2017-2018 30.06.2021 1 24.05.2022

SCA NO Due date Date of Date of Last date for issuance of filing reply:- order of notice under reply under section 148 as per section surviving time:-

148A(d) and notice under section 148:-

6387/2023 09.06.2022 04.06.2022 29.07.2022 22.06.2022 5688/2023 06.06.2022 - 27.07.2022 27.06.2022 22260/2022 07.06.2022 06.07.2022 30.07.2022 14.06.2022 996/2023 11.06.2022 10.06.2022 19.07.2022 18.06.2022

68. It is apparent from the above details that impugned notice under section 148 of the Act is issued beyond the period of 'surviving time' as per the direction of Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra)and therefore, such notices would be invalid notices.

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69.The impugned notices issued under section 148 of the Act are accordingly quashed and set aside being invalid having been issued beyond the 'surviving time'. Accordingly, impugned orders passed under section 148A(d) of the Act would also not survive and are accordingly, quashed and set aside. Subsequent proceedings, if any, undertaken by the respondent would not survive and are also quashed and set aside.

70. Rule is made absolute to the aforesaid extent. No order as to costs."

7. In the facts of the case, the

respondent Assessing Officer has provided

information pursuant to the directions

issued by the Hon'ble Apex Court in case

of Ashish Agarwal (supra) on 20.05.2022

and therefore, considering 15 days' time

to file reply by the assessee, the due

date would be 06.06.2022. The petitioner

filed reply on 06.06.2022. The order under

section 148A(d) of the Act as well as

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notice under section 148 of the Act was

issued on 29.07.2022. However, considering

the period of limitation from the date of

issuance of notice under section 148 read

with TOLA upto 30.06.2021, the limitation

for issuance of notice under section 148

of the Act applying the decision of

Hon'ble Apex Court in case of Ashish

Agarwal (supra) as well as Rajeev Bansal

(supra), would be 13.06.2022.

8. Learned advocate Mr. Dev Patel has

verified the above dates and could not

controvert the same.

9. In view of above, the impugned notice

dated 29.07.2022 issued under section 148

of the Act would be invalid notice as the

said notice is issued after 13.06.2022 as

per the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in

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case of Ashish Agarwal (supra). Therefore,

the impugned notice having been issued

beyond the 'surviving time' would be

invalid notice as held by the Hon'ble Apex

Court in case of Rajeev Bansal (supra) in

the following paragraph no. 114 (g) and

(h) of the judgment:

"114. In view of the above discussion, we conclude that:

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(g) The time during which the show-cause notices were deemed to be stayed is from the date of issuance of the deemed notice between April 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021 till the supply of relevant information and material by the Assessing Officers to the assessees in terms of the directions issued by this court in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [(2022) 444 ITR 1 (SC); (2023) 1 SCC 617.] , and the period of two weeks allowed to the assessees to respond to the show-cause notices; and

(h) The Assessing Officers were required to issue the reassessment notice under section 148 of the new regime within the time limit surviving under the Income-tax Act read with the Taxation and other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions)

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Act, 2020. All notices issued beyond the surviving period are time barred and liable to be set aside."

10. In view of foregoing reasons, impugned

notice dated 29.07.2022 is hereby quashed

and set aside and all consequential

proceedings are also quashed and set

aside.

(BHARGAV D. KARIA, J)

(PRANAV TRIVEDI,J) RAGHUNATH R NAIR