The notices under the amended Income Tax Act are valid even if previously invalid notices existed, provided conditions of procedural compliance and limitation exclusions are met.

ORDER :

(C. SARAVANAN, J.)

In this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the following Notice(s) and Order as detailed below:-

2. The first mentioned Impugned Notice dated 31.03.2021 was issued under Section 148 of the INCOME TAX ACT , 1961 as in force till 31.03.2021. It was however reportedly served on the petitioner on 12.04.2021.

3. It was deemed to be a notice issued under Section148A(b) of the INCOME TAX ACT , 1961 as in force with effect from 01.04.2021 in terms of the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in “ Union of India and others Vs. Ashish Agarwal , 2022 SCC Online SC 543” rendered on 04.05.2022.

4. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in “ Union of India and others Vs. Ashish Agarwal , 2022 SCC Online SC 543”, summarized the legal position as follows:-

“24. There appears to be genuine non-application of the amendments as the officers of the Revenue may have been under a bona fide belief that the amendments may not yet have been enforced. Therefore, we are of the opinion that some leeway must be shown in that regard which the High Courts could have done so. Therefore, instead of quashing and setting aside the reassessment notices issued under the unamended provision of the IT Act, the High Courts ought to have passed an order construing the notices issued under the unamended Act/unamended provision of the IT Act as those deemed to have been issued under Section 148 -A of the IT Act as per the new provision Section 148 -A and the Revenue ought to have been permitted to proceed further with the reassessment proceedings as per the substituted provisions of Sections 147 to 151 of the IT Act as per the Finance Act, 2021, subject to compliance of all the procedural requirements and the defences, which may be available to the assessee under the substituted provisions of Sections 147 to 151 of the IT Act and which may be available under the Finance Act, 2021 and in law.

25. Therefore, we propose to modify the judgments and orders passed by the respective High Courts as under:

25.1. The respective impugned Section 148 notices issued to the respective assessees shall be deemed to have been issued under Section 148 -A of the IT Act as substituted by the Finance Act, 2021 and treated to be show-cause notices in terms of Section 148 -A(b). The respective assessing officers shall within thirty days from today provide to the assessees the information and material relied upon by the Revenue so that the assessees can reply to the notices within two weeks thereafter.

25.2. The requirement of conducting any enquiry with the prior approval of the specified authority under Section 148 - A(a) be dispensed with as a one-time measure vis-à-vis those notices which have been issued under Section 148 of the unamended Act from 1-4-2021 till date, including those which have been quashed by the High Courts.

25.3. The assessing officers shall thereafter pass an order in terms of Section 148 -A(d) after following the due procedure as required under Section 148 -A(b) in respect of each of the assessees concerned.

25.4. All the defences which may be available to the assessee under Section 149 and/or which may be available under the Finance Act, 2021 and in law and whatever rights are available to the Assessing Officer under the Finance Act, 2021 are kept open and/or shall continue to be available.

25.5. The present order shall substitute/modify respective judgments and orders passed by the respective High Courts quashing the similar notices issued under unamended Section 148 of the IT Act irrespective of whe