A reassessment notice issued beyond the 'surviving period' as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Rajeev Bansal is time-barred. Furthermore, failure to obtain approval from the competent authority under Section 151(ii) of the Income-tax Act for notices issued after the three-year period renders the proceedings void ab initio.

आदेश / O R D E R

PER BIJAYANANDA PRUSETH, AM:

This appeal by the revenue emanates from the order passed under section 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (in short, 'the Act’) dated 12.06.2024 by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), National Face Less Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi [in short, ‘CIT(A)’] for the assessment year (AY) 2017-18.

The grounds of appeal raised by the assessee appeals are as under:

i. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, Ld. CIT(A) has erred in allowing the appeal of the assessee by holding notice issued u/s 148 of the Act invalid even though the notice was issued as per Instruction No. 01/2022 of the CBDT, New Delhi dated 11th May, 2022 and considering that the date of limitation of issuing notice for A.Y. 2017-18 got extended by the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendments of Certain provisions) Act, 2020 and further notification issued on 31.03.2021 and 27.04.2021 vide notification no. 20/2021 and 38/2021 respectively.

ii. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, Ld.CIT(A) has erred in not accepting the decision of Hon'ble Delhi High Court in case of Touchstone Holdings Pvt. Ltd. WPC 13102/2022 dated 09.09.2022 wherein it has been held that the notice issued between the period 01.04.2021 to 30.06.2021 as legal, valid and within the time frame.

iii. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, Ld.CIT(A) has erred in considering that the timeline for issuing the Notice is not extended till 30.06.2021 and only the procedure for reassessment proceedings has been amended under the Finance Act, 2021.

iv. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, Ld.CIT(A) has erred in accepting the judgment rendered in the case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [2022] 138 taxmann.com 64/286 Taxman 183/444 ITR 1/12022] SCC Online SC 543 and held that the benefit of the Finance Act, 2021 would apply even for previous Assessment Years, which would automatically mean that the time extension provided by TOLA will allow extended reassessment notices to travel back in time to their original date when such Notices were to be issued and then Section 149 of the Amended regime is to be applied at that point of time, and the Ld CIT(A) has not appreciated that TOLAas well as provisions of the Finance Act, 2021 is applicable simultaneously.

v. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, Ld.CIT(A) has erred in not consideringthat the CBDT Instruction 01/2022 dated 11.05.2022 is in line with the judgment rendered by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal [2022] 138 taxmann.com 64/286 Taxman 183/444 ITR 1/[2022] SCC Online SC 543 and reflects the intention of the Parliament while enacting TOLA.

vi. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld.CIT(A) has erred in not appreciating that under the provisions of the Act both the JAO as well as units under NFAC have concurrent jurisdiction and the Act does not distinguish between JAO or NFAC with respect to jurisdiction over a case and section 144B of the Act lays down the role of NFAC and the units under it for the specific purpose of conduct of assessment proceedings in a specific case in a particular Assessment Year and the same does not provide for issuance of notice under section 148 there jurisdiction for issue notice u/s 148 of the Act is with JAO as held by Hon'ble Calcutta High Court in the case of Triton Overseas (P.) Ltd. v. Union of India [2023] 156 taxmann.com 318 (Cal.)

vii. On the basis of the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. CIT(A) ought to have upheld the order of the Assessing Officer.

viii. It is therefore prayed that the order of the Ld. CIT(A) may kindly be set aside and that of the Assessing Officer be restored.

ix. The appellant craves leave to add, alter, amend and/or withdraw any grounds of appeal either before or during the course of hearing of the appeal.”

Brief facts of the case are that the assessee filed his return of inc