ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Writ Petition No. 3195/2021, by which the High Court has allowed the said writ petition and has quashed the Assessment Order, the Revenue has preferred the present appeal.

3. From the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court, it appears that while quashing and setting aside the Assessment Order, the High Court has heavily relied upon the CBDT Circular dated 13.08.2020 issued under Section 119 of the INCOME TAX ACT , 1961 (for short “the Act”), more particularly, para 3 of the said CBDT Circular which reads as under:-

“3. Any assessment order which is not in conformity with Para-2 above, shall be treated as non-est and shall be deemed to have never been passed.”

4. Shri Balbir Singh, learned ASG, appearing for the Revenue has submitted that para 3 of the CBDT Circular is similar to/pari materia to sub-section (9) of Section 144B of the Act, which was earlier brought into statute with effect from 01.04.2021. However, the very pari materia provision has been omitted subsequently w.e.f. 01.04.2021. It is submitted that omission of Section 144B (9) of the Act would have a direct bearing on the merits of the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court.

5. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the assessee disputes the above and has submitted that even Section 144B(9) of the Act was brought into statute w.e.f. 01.04.2021 and, in the present case, the Assessment Order was passed prior to 01.04.2021 and even the CBDT Circular was issued prior to 01.04.2021.

6. Having heard learned counsel appearing for the respective parties and in view of the subsequent development of omitting Section 144B (9) of the Act, which is pari materia to para 3 of the CBDT Circular dated 13.08.2020, which has been relied upon by the High Court, we deem it appropriate to set aside the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court and remand the matter to the High Court to consider the effect of omission of Section 144B (9) of the Act, which has been omitted w.e.f 01.04.2021 on para 3 of the CBDT Circular dated 13.08.2020.

7. In view of the above and for the reasons stated above and without further expressing anything on merits in favour of either parties on the omission of Section 144B(9) of the Act w.e.f. 01.04.2021, the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court is set aside. The matter is remitted back to the High Court to consider the same afresh in accordance with law and on merits and the High Court to consider the effect of the omission of Section 144B(9) of the Act, which has been omitted w.e.f. 01.04.2021 and the effect of such omission on para 3 of the CBDT Circular dated 13.08.2020 which, as such, prima facie seems to be pari materia to Section 144B(9) of the Act.

All the contentions/defences which are available to the respective parties are kept open to be considered by the High Court in accordance with law and on its own merits.

The present Appeal stands disposed of.

Pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of.