IMPORTANT POINT
The legal service of notice under the Income Tax Act, 1961 is a jurisdictional requirement and must be mandatorily complied with. Failure to serve notice on the correct registered email address of the assessee renders subsequent proceedings invalid.

JUDGMENT :

Om Prakash Shukla, J.

1. The petitioner challenges the correctness of the order dated 26th March, 2023 passed by the Assessing Authority under Section 148-A (d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act, 1961’) for the Assessment Year 2019-20 and the consequential notice dated 29th March, 2023 issued under Section 148 of the Act, 1961 for the Assessment Year 2019-20 as also the consequential proceedings undertaken subsequent thereto.

2. Shorn of unnecessary details, the brief facts, which led to the filing of this writ petition, are that the petitioner, a private limited company bearing PAN No. AAFCG0658J, is engaged in the business of developing and Managing hotels, motels, resorts, restaurants, cafes and other similar activities.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that for the purpose to achieve its business goal, the petitioner’s company has entered into an agreement to sale/lease dated 18.10.2011 with one Jayveer Singh in respect of his property, namely, ‘Deorhi Darwaza, Purna Mahal’ situated at Khasra No. 1533 in Village Maharaj Nagar, District Mahoba, U.P. (hereinafter referred to as the ‘property’) in distress sale. By the aforesaid agreement for sale/lease deed dated 18.10.2011, the petitioner has also been given possession of the said property from the year 2011-12 onward. The petitioner has also paid the amount of the property as per the agreement for sale/lease deed to the owner of the property. According to the petitioner, the said agreement for sale/lease deed dated 18.10.2011 was exempted from payment of stamp duty in terms of U.P. Tax and Registration Adhiniyam, 2013 and as per Tourism Policy, 2017 of the State of U.P. However, ultimately, after receiving sale consideration of the said property, the owners of the said property had executed sale deed of the property in favour of the petitioner on 16.04.2018 i.e. relevant for the Assessment Year 2019-20. This execution of sale deed dated 16.04.2018 and ownership of the said property are pending adjudication in WPIL No. 418 of 2022 : Mool Chand Anuragi and another Vs. State of U.P. and others, before this Court.

4. Noticing the transaction made in respect of purchase of the said property in the Assessment Year 2019-20, a notice under Section 148A(b) dated 07.03.2023 had been issued by the income tax department to the petitioner on the ground that there had been a heavy financial transaction during the said assessment year for the sale/purchase of a property amounting to Rs.6,31,10,000/- as per section 56(2)(x) of the Income Tax Act.

5. It is the case of the petitioner that for the first time, they received a notice dated 12.10.2023 under Section 142 (1) of the Act, 1961 for the Assessment Year 2019-20, which was sent to the petitioner on its previous mail address registered on the portal of the Income Tax Department, namely, gmkca1993@gmail.com, which according to the petitioner, is no more registered for the PAN No. AAFCG0658J of the Company. According to him, since the aforesaid notice dated 12.10.2023 was also sent as a copy to the petitioner’s registered email address on the portal of the Income Tax Department i.e. taxmohit56@gmail.com, which according to the petitioner, is presently his registered email I.D. with registered phone no. is 8874271081, on the portal of the Income Tax Department as well as its PAN, he came to learn about the said proceedings. It is also pleaded that the petitioner had been using the present registered email I.D. and registered phone, for filing of their income-tax return for the last three years.

6. According to the petitioner, the petitioner’s company has changed its Chartered Accountant w.e.f. 01.04.2019 as per Chartered Accountant Act, 1949 and Companies Act, 2013 and engaged the new Chartered Accountant for company. Thereafter, the New Charted Accountant has updated the portal of the income tax department with its new mail ID as well as phone number in the year 2019 itself and started using the same sinc