The Bombay High Court remanded back matter to Assessing Officer (AO) as there was contravention of general directions issued by Court where notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act for reopening assessment.
The petitioner in the present case is The Sahebrao Deshmukh Co-op. Bank Ltd.
The main ground for challenge is, that the Respondent No.2 – The Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Central Circle 7(2), whilst dealing with the objections filed by the Petitioner to the notice for reopening of assessment and the final order of assessment alongwith the notice of demand and penalty notice are issued without giving an opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner in the matter and all are passed contrary to the principles of natural justice.
The Respondent No.2 was denying that it has not adhered to the principles of natural justice by giving an opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner in the matter, has admitted that the Respondent No.2 had not furnished a copy of the satisfaction note recorded by the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax.
The Respondent No.2 has stated that it has not allowed hearing through video conferencing facility to the Petitioner before passing the assessment order, since the assessment proceedings in this case were not carried out by the Central Faceless Assessment Center; that the assessment of the Central Circle is a physical assessment as e-proceedings and functionality of video conferencing as a hearing opportunity is not available to the Petitioner.
Remanding back the matter to AO, the Coram consisting of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Valmiki Sa Menezes observed that “In the present case, the Assessing Officer appears to have acted in complete contravention of the general directions issued by this Court in matters, where a notice under Section 148 of the Act, for reopening of assessment is issued by the revenue.”
“This arbitrary act of the Assessing Officer is also contrary to the specific directions of this Court contained in para 8(d) in Tata Capital Financial Services Limited v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Circle 1(3)(1) and others, wherein Assessing Officers have been directed to give a personal hearing to assesses with a minimum seven working days advance notice of such personal hearing” the Court noted.
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