evident that there is absolutely no tangible material on the basis of which the assessment for the assessment year 2006-2007 could have been reopened. Upon the return of income being filed by the assessee both in the electronic form and subsequently in the conventional mode, the assessee received an intimation under section 143(1). The Assessing Officer would have been legitimately entitled to issue a notice under section 143(2) within the statutory period. That period has expired. We must clarify that the non-issuance of a notice under section 143(2) does not preclude the Assessing Officer from reopening the assessment under section 147. For that matter, as has been held by the Supreme Court in Asst. CIT v. Rajesh Jhaveri Stock Brokers P. Ltd., (2007) 291 ITR 500 (SC), the failure of the Assessing Officer to take steps under section 143(3) will not render the Assessing Officer powerless to initiate reassessment proceedings even when an intimation under section 143 (1) has been issued. But it is also a settled principle of law that when the Assessing Officer issues a notice under section 148, at that stage the only question is whether there was relevant material on which a reasonable person could have formed a requisite belief ( Rajesh Jhaveri (supra). At that stage, an established fact of the escapement of income does not have to be proved, since it is not necessary that the Assessing Officer should have finally ascertained that income has escaped assessment. The nature of the jurisdiction of the Assessing Officer which was dealt with by the judgment of the two learned judges of the Supreme Court in Rajesh Jhaveri's case was revisited in a decision of three learned judges in CIT v. Kelvinator of India Ltd. , (2010) 320 ITR 561 (SC). The Supreme Court has held that though after April 1, 1989, a wider power has been conferred upon the Assessing Officer to reopen an assessment, the power cannot be exercised on the basis of a mere change of opinion nor is it in the nature of a review. The Supreme Court has laid down the test of whether there is tangible material on the basis of which the Assessing Officer has come to the conclusion that there is an escapement of income. The Supreme Court held thus (page 564): “However, one needs to give a schematic interpretation to the words ‘reason to believe’ failing which, we are afraid, section 147 would give arbitrary powers to the Assessing Officer to reopen assessments on the basis of ‘mere change of opinion’, which cannot be per se reason to reopen. We must also keep in mind the conceptual difference between power to review and power to reassess. The
