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Orissa High Court
Sunil Kumar Sahoo vs Deputy Commissioner Of Income .... ... on 19 March, 2026
Author: Murahari Sri Raman
Bench: Murahari Sri Raman
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
WP(C) No.23933 of 2025
Sunil Kumar Sahoo .... Petitioner
Mr. Sidhartha Ray, Senior Advocate assisted by
Mr. Kshirod Kumar Sahoo, Advocate
-versus-
Deputy Commissioner of Income .... Opposite Parties
Tax, Circle-1(2) and others
Mr. Avinash Kedia, Junior Standing Counsel
CORAM:
THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
AND
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MURAHARI SRI RAMAN
ORDER
Order No. 19.03.2026
02. 1. The petitioner has approached this Court by way of filing this
writ petition invoking provisions of Articles 226 & 227 of the
Constitution of India with the following prayer(s):
"In the context aforesaid it is most humbly prayed that Your
Lordships may after hearing the counsel for the Petitioner be
pleased to-
(i) Call of the records;
(ii) And further Your Lordships may be pleased to issue rule
nisi calling upon the opp. Parties to show cause as to
why the Order of assessment passed u/s 144 of IT Act, for
the AY 2011-12 by O.P. No.1 under Annexure-6 and the
Order of Attachment dt.21.05.2025 issued by the O.P.
No.3 under Anneuxre-4 to the writ petition shall not be
quashed; And if the Opp. Parties fail to show cause or
show insufficient cause then the rule may be made
absolute.
(iii) And further Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the
Opp. Parties not to take any coercive action against the
Petitioner;
(iv) And further your Lordships may be pleased to pass such
other order or orders as your Lordships may deem fit
and proper;
And for this act of kindness, the petitioners as in duty bound
shall ever pray."
2. Learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner submitted
that without serving any notice as required under Section
143(2) and 142(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, "the
Act"), the Assessing Officer proceeded with the matter based
on the scrutiny made through Computer-Assisted Scrutiny
Selection (CASS) relating to Assessment Year 2011-12.
2.1. He further submitted that it is requirement under the provisions
of Section 142 read with Section 143 that while initiating any
assessment proceeding, it is incumbent upon the Assessing
Officer to serve notice on the assessee and it is also necessary
to furnish the details as may be specified in such notice. As no
notice under Section 143(2) or Section 142(1) of the Act was
served on the petitioner, he was deprived of availing
opportunity to place his matter before the Assessing Officer.
Since there was flagrant violation of principles of natural
justice, the assessment order is vitiated and, therefore, is liable
to be quashed.
3. On the earlier occasion, when the matter was listed, learned
Senior Standing Counsel sought for accommodation to enable
him to obtain instruction in this matter.
3.1. Today, when the matter was taken up, learned Junior Standing
Counsel appearing for the Department-opposite parties
furnished instructions received from the Department and
submitted that a notice under Section 143(2) dated 6 th August,
2012 was dispatched by post and on instruction he submitted
that the said notice was served on the assesse-petitioner.
3.2. At this stage, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the
petitioner on being served with copy of documents evidencing
service of notice under Section 143(2) of the Act on the
petitioner himself sought for leave to approach the appropriate
forum for availing alternative remedy to ventilate grievance on
merit.
3.3. Learned Junior Standing Counsel appearing for the Department
raised no objection for such proposition.
4. Heard learned Senior Advocate for the petitioner and learned
Junior Standing Counsel for the Department-opposite parties.
5. Considering the submissions made by the counsel for the
parties and after going through the instructions furnished by the
learned Junior Standing Counsel, this Court, without expressing
opinion on the merits of the case, feels it apt to grant liberty to
the petitioner to file appeal within a period of fifteen days from
date. Needless to say that if the petitioner approaches the
authority within the time stipulated, the authority concerned
shall consider the same as expeditiously as possible and
proceed to dispose of the appeal in accordance with law.
6. With the aforesaid observation and direction, the writ petition
stands disposed of. As a result of disposal of the writ petition,
all pending Interlocutory Application (s), if any, shall stand
disposed of.
(Harish Tandon)
Chief Justice
(M.S. Raman)
Judge
MRS/Laxmikant
Signed by: LAXMIKANT MOHAPATRA
Designation: Senior Stenographer
Reason: Authentication
Location: High Court of Orissa, Cuttack
Date: 23-Mar-2026 19:45:51
