Court No. - 3
Case :- WRIT TAX No. - 867 of 2021 Petitioner :- Praveen Kumar Agarwal Respondent :- Union Of India And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Vipin Kumar,Amit Mahajan Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Gaurav Mahajan,Manu Ghildyal
Hon'ble Naheed Ara Moonis,J. Hon'ble Saumitra Dayal Singh,J.
1. Heard Sri Amit Mahajan, learned counsel for the assessee and Sri Manu Ghildyal, learned counsel for the revenue.
2. Challenge has been raised to the order dated 09.08.2021 passed by respondent no.3-Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax-I, Bareilly, whereby the said authority has disposed of the objections raised by the petitioner to the initiation of re-assessment proceedings in his case for A.Y. 2014-15.
3. Principal submission advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner is, for A.Y. 2014-15, the income of the petitioner was below 15 lacs. Therefore, the assessing authority in his case would be an Income Tax Officer and not Deputy/Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax. For that purpose, he relies on the order dated 19.02.2018 issued by the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Bareilly. He further relies on provisions of Section 120 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act').
4. The writ petition has been vehemently opposed by learned counsel for the revenue. However, he could not dispute the fact that the written objection filed as to the correct designation of the assessing authority who could initiate re-assessment proceedings for A.Y. 2014-15, has not been dealt with and decided.
5. Without entering into the merits of the objection and without making any observation in that regard, we find that inasmuch as it is the settled law in GKN Driveshafts (India) Limited Vs. Income Tax Officer & Ors., (2003) 259 ITR 19, at the stage of initiation of re-assessment, the petitioner has right to object to such assumption of jurisdiction before the assessing authority who must decide the same before proceeding with the re- assessment, we opine that objection has not been finally dealt with.
6. Accordingly, the present writ petition is disposed of with a direction that, in case, the petitioner files a copy of this order before respondent no.3 alongwith a copy of his objection dated 08.07.2021 (Annexure No.8 to the writ petition), the said authority shall pass a proper order with respect to the objection raised in paragraph no.1 of the said objection, within a period of two weeks from today. Only after communicating the further order that may be passed by respondent no.3, the re-assessment proceedings may be continued further.
Order Date :- 25.10.2021 Abhilash