Golekha Bihari Aich vs Principal Commissioner Of Income
2023 Latest Caselaw 1344 Ori

                     IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

                                     W.P.(C) No. 30939 of 2022

            Golekha Bihari Aich                         ....          Petitioner
                                                       Mr. R.P. Kar, Advocate

                                          -versus-

            Principal Commissioner of Income
            Tax, Odisha & Others                        ....    Opposite Parties
                                                          Mr. T.K. Satapathy
                                         Sr. Standing Counsel, IT Department

                        CORAM:
                        THE CHIEF JUSTICE
                        JUSTICE M.S. RAMAN
                                          ORDER

08.02.2023

Order No.

02. 1. Notice. Mr. T.K. Satapathy, learned Senior Standing Counsel for the I.T. Department accepts notice for the Opposite Parties.

2. The challenge in the present petition is to a reassessment order dated 27th March, 2022 passed by the National Faceless Assessment Centre, Delhi (Opposite Party No.3) under Section 147 of the Act read with section-144(B) of the Income Tax, 1961 (Act). A short ground on which the challenges has been raised is that the impugned order was not preceded by a draft assessment order, which is required to be served on the Assessee under Section 144(B) of the Act.

3. The show cause notice preceding the reassessment order was not accompanied by such draft assessment order.

4. The issue is no longer res integra as far this Court is concerned. In several judgments it has been held that the above provision which was inserted with effect from 1st April, 2021 has to be mandatorily complied with. A sampling of such orders includes the order dated 1st October, 2021 of this Court in W.P.(C) No.29279 of 2021 (Sribasta Kumar Swain v. Union of India), the orders dated 11th July, 2022 and 27th October, 2022 of this Court in W.P.(C) No.14008 of 2022 (Kshamta Foundation, Sundargarh v. Income Tax Officer, National Faceless Assessment Centre, New Delhi), the judgment of the Gujarat High Court in R/Special Civil Application No.7370 of 2021 (Enviro Control Private Limited v. National E.Assessment Centre) and the judgment dated 30th September, 2022 Page 3 of 3 of the Madras High Court in W.P.(C) No.16373 of 2022 (P.T. Lee Chengalvaraya Naicker Trust, Chennai v. Income Tax Officer).

5. In that view of the matter, the impugned assessment order and the consequential demand notice are hereby quashed. This will, however, not prevent the Department from proceeding afresh in accordance with law hereafter.

6. The writ petition is disposed of with the aforesaid direction

(Dr. S. Muralidhar) Chief Justice

(M.S. Raman) Judge Balaram