Punjab-Haryana High Court

Singla Rice Oil And General Mills vs Union Of India And Ors on 20 November, 2024

Author: Sanjeev Prakash Sharma

Bench: Sanjeev Prakash Sharma

                                Neutral Citation No:=2024:PHHC:151755-DB




103         IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
                        AT CHANDIGARH




                                               CWP
                                               CWP-5307-2022 (O&M)
                                               Date of Decision: 20.11.2024


Singla Rice Oil and General Mills                             ...Petitioner

                                 Vs.

Union of India and others                                     ...Respondents

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA
       HON'BLE MR.
               M JUSTICE SANJAY VASHISTH

Present:    Mr. Ashish Jhamb,, Advocate for the petitioner.

            Ms. Gauri Neo Rampal, Sr. Standing Counsel for the revenue.
            (through video conferencing).
                        ***

SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA, J.(Oral)

1. Learned counsel for the parties are ad ad-idem idem and as per

instructions received from the department that the case may be disposed of in

terms of Category 'C' of the judgment passed by the Hon'ble Delhi High

Court in Suman Jeet Agarwal vs. Income Tax officer, Ward 61 (1) and

others WP(C) No.10/2022 and connected cases, decide decided on 27.09.2022.

2. After the judgment passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in

Union of India v. Ashish Ashish Agarwal, 2022 2022 (7) Scale 226,, several

categories of cases were noticed by the Delhi High Court and the same are as

under:-

"30. Additionally, it is a settled position of law that the notice

under Section 148 of the Act of 1961 must be served in

accordance with the procedure established by law, to the correct

addressee, otherwise the reassessment proceedings would be

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invalid in law. [Commissioner of Income -Tax (Central) - I v.

Chetan Gupta (Supra)] The issuance of e-mail attaching

electronic notice to an unrelated e-mail address does not

constitute as due despatch and therefore, the Notices cannot be

said to have been issued on 31st March, 2021. However, in each

of these matters, since an authenticated copy of the notice was

placed on the registered account of the assessee on the E-filing

portal, as that is how the petitioners learnt about the notices,

these notices will be held to have been issued on the date on

which the Notices were first viewed by the assessees on their E-

filing portal.

31. For the reasons and principles that we have laid down, we

dispose of these Writ Petitions with the following directions:

31.1. Category 'A': The Notices falling under category 'A',

which were digitally signed on or after 1st of April, 2021, are

held to bear the date on which the said Notices were digitally

signed and not 31st March 2021. The said petitions are disposed

of with the direction that the said Notices are to be considered

as show-cause-notices under Section 148A (b) of the Act as per

the directions of the apex Court in the Ashish Agarwal (Supra)

judgment.

31.2. Category 'B': The Notices falling under category 'B'

which were sent through the registered e-mail ID of the

respective JAOs, though not digitally signed are held to be valid.

The said petitions are disposed of with the direction to the JAOs

to verify and determine the date and time of its despatch as

recorded in the ITBA portal in accordance with the law laid

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down in this judgment as the date of issuance. If the date and

time of despatch recorded is on or after 1st of April, 2021, the

Notices are to be considered as show-cause-notices under

Section 148A (b) as per the directions of the apex Court in the

Ashish Agarwal (Supra) judgment.

31.3. Category 'C': The petitions challenging Notices falling

under category 'C' which were digitally signed on 31st of

March 2021, are disposed of with the direction to the JAOs to

verify and determine the date and time of despatch as recorded

in the ITBA portal in accordance with the law laid down in this

judgment as the date of issuance. If the date and time of

despatch recorded is on or after 1st of April, 2021, the Notices

are to be considered as show-cause-notices under Section 148A

(b) as per the directions of the apex Court in the Ashish Agarwal

(Supra) judgment.

31.4. Category 'D': The petitions challenging Notices falling

under category 'D' which were only uploaded in the E-filing

portal of the assessees without any real time alert, are disposed

of with the direction to the JAOs to determine the date and time

when the assessees viewed the Notices in the E-filing portal, as

recorded in the ITBA portal and conclude such date as the date

of issuance in accordance with the law laid down in this

judgment. If such date of issuance is determined to be on or after

1st of April 2021, the Notices will be construed as issued under

Section 148A (b) of the Act of 1961 as per the Ashish Agarwal

(Supra) judgment.

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31.5. Category 'E': The petitions challenging Notices falling

under category 'E' which were manually despatched, are

disposed of with the direction to the JAOs to determine in

accordance with the law laid down in this judgment, the date

and time when the Notices were delivered to the post office for

despatch and consider the same as date of issuance. If the date

and time of despatch recorded is on or after 1st of April, 2021,

the Notices are to be construed as show-cause-notices under

Section 148A (b) as per the directions of the apex Court in the

Ashish Agarwal (Supra) judgment.

31.6. Notices sent to unrelated e-mail addresses: The petitions

challenging Notices which were sent to unrelated e-mail

addresses are disposed of with the direction the JAOs to verify

the date on which the Notice was first viewed by the assessee on

the E-filing portal and consider the same as the date of issuance.

If such date of issuance is determined to be on or after 01st

April, 2021, the Notices will be construed as issued under

Section 148A (b) of the Act of 1961 as per judgment in Ashish

Agarwal (Supra).

31.7. We may note that in the writ petitions, the petitioners have

raised additional defenses to challenge the impugned Notices.

Such additional defenses have not been considered by this Court

and the petitioners shall be at liberty to raise all such additional

defenses as available in law.

31.8. We are conscious that the time granted by the Supreme

Court in Ashish Agarwal to the Department has since expired on

3rd June, 2022 however, the proceedings in the present writ

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petitions were stayed on 24th March, 2022 until the

pronouncement of this judgment. Therefore, we grant the JAOs

in the first instance eight (8) weeks time from today to determine

the date of issuance of the Notices as per the law laid down in

this judgment.

31.9. The Notices which in accordance with the law laid down in

this judgment has been verified by the JAOs to have been issued

on or after 1st April 2021 and until 30th June, 2021 shall be

deemed to have been issued under Section 148A of the Act of

1961 as substituted by the Finance Act, 2021 and construed to

be show-cause notices in terms of Section 148A(b) as per the

judgment of the apex Court in Ashish Agarwal (Supra) and the

JAOs shall thereafter follow the procedure set down by the

Supreme Court in the said judgment which reads as follows:

"26. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above, the

present Appeals are ALLOWED IN PART. The impugned

common judgments and orders passed by the High Court of

Judicature at Allahabad in W.T. No. 524/2021 and other allied

tax appeals/petitions, is/are hereby modified and substituted as

under : -

(i) The impugned section 148 notices issued to the

respective assessees which were issued under unamended

section 148 of the IT Act, which were the subject matter of

writ petitions before the various respective High Courts

shall be deemed to have been issued under section 148A

of the IT Act as substituted by the Finance Act, 2021 and

construed or treated to be show-cause notices in terms of

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section 148A(b). The assessing officer shall, within thirty

days from today provide to the respective assessees

information and material relied upon by the Revenue, so

that the assesees can reply to the show-cause notices

within two weeks thereafter;