A division bench of the Gujarat high court has refused the assessment order mentioned beneath section 144B of the income tax act, 1961 on the basis of the notice was not being furnished as well as the draft assessment.
The taxpayer, M/s Symphony Ltd has to vide the letters on 30.05.2021 and 01.07.2021 corresponding fetched to the notice of the respondent that it had already submitted its reply with respect to the notice on 17.04.2021.
Towards the High court, the taxpayer specifies that the challenged assessment order passes excluding taking into acknowledgement the answer furnished by the writ applicant and indeed excluding affording any opportunity of video conferencing. It was indeed submitted that the impugned order passed beneath section 143(3) read with section 144B of the act can be specified to be passed against the norms of natural justice.
During furnishing relief to the taxpayer, Mr. Justice J.B.Pardiwala and Ms. Justice Nisha M. Thakore ruled “that it is by now well settled that the issuance of a show-cause notice along with the draft assessment order is sine qua non before passing an order under Section 144B of the Act.”
The court founded that “Undisputedly, in the case on hand, no show cause notice came to be issued along with draft assessment order and in such circumstances, the final order of assessment could be said to be without jurisdiction. We are of the view that the matter should be remitted to the Assessing Officer for de novo proceedings,”
After stating the order “In the result, this writ application succeeds and is hereby allowed. The impugned assessment order dated 30.07.2021 for the A.Y. 2018-19 is hereby quashed and set aside. The matter is remitted to the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer shall issue a show-cause notice with the draft assessment order so that the writ applicant can respond to the same by an appropriate reply.”
