The main legal point established in the judgment is that the authorities must provide the petitioner with the materials gathered during search operations and opportunities to participate in the proceedings as contemplated under the Income Tax Act.

The writ petition WP No.1143 of 2003 is filed challenging the notice issued by the Authorities Competent under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, for reopening of the assessment year 1996-1997 and WP No.1144 of 2003 is filed challenging the notice issued by the Authorities Competent under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, for reopening of the assessment year 1995-1996.

2. Both the abovesaid writ petitions viz., WP Nos.1143 and 1144 of 2003 were filed challenging the notices issued by the Assessing Officer under Section 148 of the Act, for the purpose of reopening the assessments which were already finalised for the assessment years 1995-1996 and 1996-1997.

3. The third writ petition viz., WP No.7623 of 2002 is filed by the same writ petitioner with a prayer to forbear the first and second respondents from making an assessment on the petitioner under Chapter XIV-B of the Income Tax Act for the Block Period 1987-1988 to 1997-1998 pursuant to the notice issued under Section 158-BC of the Income Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'), by the second respondent on 8th October 2001.

4. The learned counsel for the writ petitioner advanced his arguments, by commencing the initial ground raised by the writ, petitioner that the fair opportunity had not been provided to the writ petitioner to put forth his case before the Authorities Competent. The materials gathered during the search operations in the premises of the writ petitioner had not been shared at all. Thus, the writ petitioner was deprived of his opportunity of knowing the materials, which were secured at the time of search operations. This made the writ petitioner unable to submit his defence before the appropriate authorities.

5. Under the Statute, the materials secured during the search operations ought to have been served or permitted to be seen by the persons aggrieved. However, the said mandatory procedures had not been implemented by the Authorities Competent in the present cases and therefore, the rights conferred to the writ petitioner are denied and therefore, the writ petitioner is constrained to move the present writ petitions.

6. The learned counsel for the writ petitioner is of an opinion that the notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act for reopening of the closed assessment is also impermissible in law. The learned counsel for the writ petitioner is mainly on the ground that parallel proceedings under Section 158-BC as well as under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act is impermissible in law. Such parallel proceedings would cause prejudice to the rights of the assessee. In the event of allowing the authorities to proceed parallelly, the assessee would be deprived of his opportunity in submitting his depositions or defence statements, in both the cases where block assessment is taken as well as the reopening of the closed assessment.

7. With reference to the abovesaid submission, the learned counsel for the writ petitioner cited the provisions of the Income Tax Act. The learned counsel for the writ petitioner states that under Section 158-BA as amended through the Finance (No.2) Act, 1998 with effect from 1.7.1995, provides Explanations to the original provision made under Section 158-BA of the Act. The Explanations are provided for the removal of doubts and it reads as follows:-

“Explanation.—For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that—

(a) the assessment made under this Chapter shall be in addition to the regular assessment in respect of each previous year included in the block period;

(b) the total undisclosed income relating to the block period shall not include the income assessed in any regular assessment as income of such block period;

(c) the income assessed in this Chapter shall not be included in the regular assessment of any previous year included in the block period.”

8. Explanation (b) unambiguously enumerates that the total undisclosed income relating to the block period shall not include the income assessed in any regula