The central legal point established in the judgment is that the Department must show that the seized documents in fact belong to (and not merely pertain to) the Assessee in order to initiate proceedings under Section 153C(1) of the Income Tax Act.

S. Muralidhar, J.

1. These are five writ petitions filed by Canyon Financial Services Limited (hereafter 'the Assessee'), questioning the satisfaction notes dated 13th and 19th March, 2014 issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (‘DCIT’), Central Circle-2 New Delhi [hereinafter referred to the Assessing Officer (‘AO’) of the searched person’] and the Income Tax Officer, Ward 3(2), New Delhi [hereinafter ‘AO of the Assessee’] respectively initiating proceedings against the Assessee under Section 153C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘Act’).

2. A search and seizure operation was carried out in the case of M/s. Dalmia Group of cases on 20th, 27th and 28th January 2012 by the Investigation Wing Unit-VI(1), New Delhi of the Income Tax Department ('Department'). In that process a search was undertaken of Mr. Parag Dalmia at Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi and documents comprising 249 pages were seized.

3. During the consequent assessment proceedings involving Dalmia Infrastructures Private Limited (‘DIPL’) [formerly known as Dalmia Equities Private Limited (‘DEPL’)], the AO of DEPL prepared on 13th March 2014 a satisfaction note in which set out in a tabular form an analysis of some of the documents seized as under:

Annexure No.1 Party No.	Page Nos.	Description of documents
A-3/DB-8	1-48	These pages contain letter from M/s Canyon Financial Services Ltd. (AAACC3744J) written to Board of Directors, Dalmia Equities Pvt. Ltd. Regarding application for equity shares of Rs. 10/- each at a premium of Rs. 110/- per share. Certificate of Canyon Financial Services Ltd., confirming issue of equity shares of Dalmia Equities Pvt. Ltd. Copy of Form 32, copy of return of income of Canyon Financial Services Ltd. Director's report, certificate of incorporation, memorandum of association.

4. Thereafter, the AO of the searched person recorded his satisfaction as under:

“I have examined the documents and I am satisfied that the above seized material belongs to M/s Canyon Financial Services Ltd., which is assessed to tax with Ward 3(2), New Delhi. Hence, notice u/s 153C may be issued in the case of M/s. Canyon Financial Services Ltd. Accordingly for AYs 2006-07 to 2011-12.”

5. The search in the Dalmia Group of Companies took place on 20th January, 2012 and the satisfaction note by the AO of the searched person was dated 13th March, 2014. Therefore, Section 153C as it stood prior to the amendment with effect from 1st June, 2015 applied to the case on hand. In terms of the said provision i.e., 153C(1), the AO of the searched person had to be satisfied that the documents seized ‘belongs or belong to a person other than the person referred to in Section 153A' in order that the AO of the searched person could to hand over such documents to the AO “having jurisdiction over such other person”. The change brought about by the prospective amendment, with effect from 1st June 2015, is that for initiating proceedings under Section 153 C arising from searches after that date it is enough for the Department to show that a particular seized document 'pertains to' the other person. However, in the present case, since the proceedings under Section 153 C (1) of the Act against the Assessee commenced prior to 1st June 2015, the Department is not relieved of the burden of showing that the seized documents in fact belong to (and not merely pertain to) the Assessee.

6. In the present case, after recording the satisfaction note as above on 13th March 2014, the AO of the searched person made over the aforementioned documents to the AO of the Assessee. On 19th March 2014, the AO of the Assessee recorded his satisfaction note. This AO reproduced the same tabular columns as well as description of documents as set out in the satisfaction note of the AO of the searched person. Thereafter, the AO of the Assesse