Sanjay Kumar, J.

1. Notices issued to two assessees under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for brevity, the Act of 1961), proposing to reopen their assessments for the assessment year 2010-11 are subjected to challenge by them in these writ petitions.

2. By interim orders dated 04.12.2017 passed in both cases, this Court restrained the Income-tax authorities from proceeding further with the reassessment of the petitioners for the said assessment year.

3. A rather long-winded history precedes the issuance of the impugned notices. Both the writ petitioners are employees of M/s. Vijay Nirman Company Limited, Visakhapatnam. The petitioner in W.P.No.40706 of 2017, Anne Venkata Vishnu Vara Prasad (hereinafter, Prasad), filed his return of income for the assessment year 2010-11 declaring a total income of Rs.49,69,760/-, while the petitioner in W.P.No.40708 of 2017, Yelamanchili Venkata Ramana (hereinafter, Ramana), declared a total income of Rs.54,30,170/-. Both of them declared long term capital gains arising out of transfer of their shares in M/s. Vijay Nirman Company Private Limited, as it then was, treating the date of transfer of these unlisted shares as 24.11.2009, the