Vishwesh Prabhakar Kulkarni v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Circle 2 and Ors.
Income Tax – Notice under Section 148, Income Tax Act, 1961
Case brief
What is this about?
Bombay High Court (DB, Colabawalla & Jamsandekar, JJ.) in W.P. No. 12155 of 2025 (decided 22-09-2025) allowed a writ petition challenging a Section 148 Income Tax Act, 1961 notice issued by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer rather than the Faceless Assessing Officer. Following Hexaware Technologies Ltd. (2024) 162 taxmann.com 225 (Bombay), whose SLP before the Supreme Court was noted as unstayed, the Court set aside the notice and all consequential proceedings/orders, with a conditional revival mechanism (Praecipe, no separate IA) and an automatic stay on the notice if the petition is revived on the Supreme Court setting aside Hexaware; no revival if the SLP fails; petition, if revived, to be decided on its own merits; no costs.
What did the court decide?
Rule made absolute; impugned Section 148 notice and all proceedings/orders emanating therefrom set aside; liberty to Revenue to revive the petition by Praecipe (without a separate Interim Application) if the Hexaware decision is set aside by the Supreme Court, with a stay on the notice's operation and implementation upon revival; no order as to costs.