Allowed

Pushpa Devi v. Income Tax Officer & Ors.

Delhi HC22 Apr 2025W.P.(C)/7610/2023

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Writ petition against reopening of assessment for AY 2015-16 via a Section 148 notice dated 28.05.2021 issued without Section 148A procedure. Relying on the Revenue's concession in Rajeev Bansal that such notices for AY 2015-16 must be dropped, the court set aside the notice and all consequent proceedings including the reassessment order and allowed the petition.

What did the court decide?

Impugned notice dated 28.05.2021, all proceedings pursuant thereto and reassessment order dated 19.05.2023 under Sections 147/144B set aside; petition allowed.

Pushpa Devi Vs Income Tax Officer & Ors. — Income Tax | Delhi HC (2025)

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$~40

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

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- W.P.(C) 7610/2023

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PUSHPA DEVI .....Petitioner

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Through: Mr. Rohit Jain and Mr. Samarth Chaudhari, Advs.

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Versus

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INCOME TAX OFFICER & ORS. .....Respondents Through: Mr. Vipul Agrawal & Ms. Sakshi Shairwal, Advs.

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CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIBHU BAKHRU HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE TEJAS KARIA O R D E R

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% 22.04.2025

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The petitioner has filed the present petition, inter alia , impugning a notice dated 28.05.2021 issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [ the Act ] and further proceedings relating to the said notice in respect of assessment year [ AY ] 2015-16.

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The petitioner is an individual and claims to derive his income under the head “Income from Salaries”. The petitioner filed its return of income for the AY 2015-16, on 17.10.2022, declaring his income from salary as ‘Nil’.

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The Assessing Officer [ AO ] issued a notice dated 28.05.2021 under Section 148 of the Act seeking to reopen the assessment for AY 2015-16. Although the said notice was issued after 31.03.2021, the procedure as prescribed under Section 148A of the Act was not followed as the notice was premised on the provisions relating to reassessment as were in force prior to 31.03.2021.

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Thereafter, by a communication dated 20.05.2022, the AO referred to

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This is a digitally signed order.

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The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/04/2025 at 16:06:43

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the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal: (2022) 444 ITR 1 (SC) and forwarded certain information, which according to the AO, suggested that the petitioner’s income had escaped assessment. The said communication also mentioned that in terms of the aforementioned decision in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal ( supra ), the impugned notice issued under Section 148 of the Act was held to be a notice under Section 148A(b) of the Act.

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Thereafter, the AO passed an order under Section 148A(d) of the Act holding that it was a fit case for issuance of a notice under Section 148 of the Act in respect of AY 2015-16. The said order was forwarded to the Assessee along with a notice dated 13.07.2022 issued under Section 148 of the Act in respect of AY 2015-16.

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The assessment proceedings were conducted in accordance with the procedure prescribed under Section 144B of the Act and the same culminated in an assessment order dated 19.05.2023.

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The Assessee contends that the proceedings initiated pursuant to the impugned notice dated 28.05.2021, including the assessment order, are required to be set aside in view of the concession made by the Revenue before the Supreme Court in Union of India and Ors. v. Rajeev Bansal: 2024 INSC 754 .

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It is relevant to refer to paragraph 19(e) and 19(f) from the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India and Ors. v. Rajeev Bansal ( supra ), which sets out the concession as made on behalf of the Revenue:

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“The Finance Act 2021 substituted the old regime for reassessment with a new regime. The first proviso to Section 149 does not expressly bar the application of TOLA. Section 3 of TOLA applies to the entire Income-tax Act, including Sections 149

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This is a digitally signed order.

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The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/04/2025 at 16:06:43

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and 151 of the new regime. Once the first proviso to Section 149(1)(b) is read with TOLA, then all the notices issued between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021 pertaining to assessment years 201314, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 will be within the period of limitation as explained in the tabulation below:

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Assessment year	Within 3 Years	Expiry Limitation with TOLA	of read for (2)	Within six Years	Expiry Limitation with TOLA	of read for (4)
(1)	(2)	(3)		(4)	(5)
2013-2014	31-3-2017	TOLA applicable	not	31-3-2020	30-6-2021
2014-2015	31-3-2018	TOLA applicable	not	31-3-2021	30-6-2021
2015-2016	31-3-2019	TOLA applicable	not	31-3-2022	TOLA applicable	not
2016-17	31-3-2020	30-6-2021		31-3-2023	TOLA applicable	not
2017-2018	31-3-2021	30-6-2021		31-3-2024	TOLA applicable	not

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f. The Revenue concedes that for the assessment year 2015-16, all notices issued on or after 1 April 2021 will have to be dropped as they will not fall for completion during the period prescribed under TOLA;”

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In view of the above concession, the impugned notice and the proceedings relating thereto are required to be set aside. We may also note the decision of the Supreme Court in Deepak Steel and Power Ltd. v. Central Board of Direct Taxes and Ors.: Civil Appeal No.5177/2025, decided on 02.04.2025 . The said appeal arose from orders passed by the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa and Cuttack declining to entertain batch of petitions filed by the Assessees. The attention of the Supreme Court was drawn to the concession made on behalf of the Revenue in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal ( supra ) and noting the same, the Supreme Court allowed the appeals. The relevant extract of the said decision is set out below:

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This is a digitally signed order.

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“4. The learned counsel appearing for the revenue with his usual fairness invited the attention of this Court to a three judge bench decision of this Court in Union of India and Ors. v. Rajeev Bansal,

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The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/04/2025 at 16:06:43

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reported in 2024 SCC OnLine SC 2693, more particularly, paragraph 19(f) which reads thus:-

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“19. (f) The Revenue concedes that for the assessment year 2015-2016, all notices issued on or after April 1, 2021 will have to be dropped as they will not fall for completion during the period prescribed under the Taxation and other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020.”

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As the revenue made a concession in the aforesaid decision that is for the assessment year 2015-2016, all notices issued on or after 1st April, 2021 will have to be dropped as they would not fall for completion during the period prescribed under the taxation and other laws (Relaxation and Amendment of certain Provisions Act, 2020). Nothing further is required to be adjudicated in this matter as the notices so far as the present litigation is concerned is dated 25.6.2021.

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In view of the aforesaid, in such circumstances referred to above the original writ petition nos.2446 of 2023, 2543 of 2023 and 2544 of 2023 respectively filed before the High Court of Orissa at cuttack stands allowed.

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The impugned notice therein stands quashed and set aside.”

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In view of the Revenue’s concession as noted above, we do not consider it apposite to examine other issues raised in the present petition. The impugned notice and all proceedings initiated pursuant thereto including the re-assessment order dated 19.05.2023 passed under Section 147 read with and 144B of the Act, are set aside.

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The petition is allowed in the aforesaid terms.

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VIBHU BAKHRU, J

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TEJAS KARIA, J

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APRIL 22, 2025 ‘gsr’ Click here to check corrigendum, if any

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This is a digitally signed order.

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The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 30/04/2025 at 16:06:43

Pushpa Devi v. Income Tax Officer & Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Pushpa Devi v. Income Tax Officer & Ors.

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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