The court emphasized the importance of the Assessing Officer's proper consideration of the petitioner's objections and material placed before forming an opinion on alleged income chargeable to tax.

JUDGMENT

[Physical Hearing/Hybrid Hearing (as per request)]

Rajiv Shakdher, J. (Oral):

1. In view of the directions that we propose to pass, Mr Sunil Agarwal, learned senior standing counsel, who appears on behalf of the respondent/revenue, says that no counter-affidavit is required to be filed.

2. Therefore, with the consent of the counsel for the parties, the writ petition is taken up final hearing and disposal, at this stage itself.

3. This writ petition came up for hearing, in the first instance, on 23.01.2023. At that juncture, Mr Agarwal had raised a preliminary objection, which is, that the order qua which grievance was articulated in the writ petition was passed as far back as on 31.03.2022.

4. This order was passed under Section 148A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [in short, "Act"].

5. Having regard to the objection taken, we had asked Mr Agarwal to return with instructions, as to whether or not in the intervening period, the Assessing Officer [AO] had passed an assessment order.

5.1. Mr. Agarwal has returned with instructions, to the effect that the AO has not passed an assessment order, as yet.

5.2. The statement of Mr. Agarwal is taken on record.

6. The record shows, that the principal allegation against the petitioner is, that it has indulged in bogus sale and purchase transactions, to claim fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC).

6.1. The entities, which have been referred to by the respondent/revenue in the Section 148A(b) notice are the following:

(i) M/s Mica Industries Ltd.;

(ii) M/s Satellite Cable Pvt. Ltd.;

(iii) M/s Sri Ram Industries;

(iv) M/s Jatalia Global Venture Ltd.; and

(v) M/s Manoj Cables Ltd.

7. It is alleged, that the petitioner has entered into a transaction worth Rs.7,19,86,100/-. Apart from anything else, there is also an allegation made against the petitioner, on the very same lines, concerning the following entities: Jatalia Global Ventures Limited, Manoj Cables Limited and RCI Industries and Technologies. As would be evident, the names of two out of the three entities also appear in paragraph 6.1 above.

8. The allegation is, that insofar as RCI Industries and Technologies is concerned, the petitioner has entered into a financial transaction worth Rs.1,29,00,000/- Thus, the cumulative worth of bogus transactions, which the petitioner seems to have allegedly entered into with the aforementioned entities is Rs.8,48,86,110/-.

9. According to the respondent/revenue, the aforementioned transactions fall within Financial Year 2017-18 [(AY) Assessment Year 2018-19].

9.1. The aforementioned information is contained in the "Annexure" appended to the notice dated 23.03.2022 issued to the petitioner under Section 148A(b) of the Act.

10. We have, on record, the reply dated 26.03.2022 filed by the petitioner to the aforementioned notice. Briefly, the petitioner has denied having entered into transactions in the period under consideration with the entities referred to hereinabove.

11. We have asked Ms Rano Jain, who appears on behalf of the petitioner, as to whether any information/material was furnished to the petitioner, which linked the petitioner to the aforementioned entities. Ms Jain emphatically submits, that no information/material was supplied.

11.1. As a matter of fact, Ms Jain also submits, that the information with regard to the specified authority which granted the approval for triggering the reassessment proceedings was also not provided to the petitioner.

12. Besides this, Ms Jain has also referred to pages 30 and 59 of the case file, where the details of the parties with whom the petitioner has entered into transactions is set forth. Both these documents are typed documents.

13. The document appended on page 30 of the case file provides the details of purchases made from the entities, while the document which is annexed on page 59 of the case file provides the details of the sales, made during the period spanning between 01.04.2017 and 31.03.2018.

14. A perusal of the order dated 31.03