PER ARUN KHODPIA, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER:

The captioned appeals are filed by the assessee against the orders of CIT(A)/NFAC, 52, Mumbai (in short „the Ld. CIT(A)‟) dated 08.11.2024 for the Assessment Year 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, which in term arises from the order u/s 153C / 143(3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short „the Act‟) dated 28.09.202, 27.09.2021 passed by Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Central Circle 4(4), Mumbai (in short „the Ld. AO‟).

Condonation of Delay:

2. The captioned appeals are time barred being filed with a delay of 120 days. In explanation for sufficient in intentional cause beyond the control of assessee, petitions for condonation are filed for all the years under consideration. Application along with affidavit for AY 2013-14 are reproduced as under:

3. Going through the contents of the condonation petition and affidavit, we find substance in the request of the assessee, who is an uneducated person. The communication of the impugned orders was not received by the assessee through email or SMS, which could have come to his notice only when e-portal of department has been logged into by his chartered accountant. Nothing on records suggests any intentional or deliberate attempt of the assessee to delay the filing of appeal. We, thus, in the interest of justice condone the delay in filing of aforesaid appeals, so as proceed to adjudicate the same in terms of grounds of appeal raised therein.

4. All the aforesaid appeals pertain to same assessee, emerging from search and seizure action on Allana Group, having identical, interconnected and interwoven facts, therefore, these appeals, for the sake of brevity are heard together and are disposed off under this common order.

5. The issue raised in the aforesaid appeals are dividend in three parties,

(i). That the assessment years are completed after the stipulated date under the Act, accordingly, such assessments are barred by limitation and the assessing officer lacks assumption of jurisdiction to complete such assessments.

(ii). The assessment was complete u/s 143(3) instead of section 153C of the Act while the basis of assessment was a search and the assessment fails within the period of 6 years as per provision of section 153C r.w.s. 153A of the Act and

(iii). The remaining appeals are to decided, as per the grounds of appeal raised therein.

6. The first category of appeal pertains of assessment year 2013-14 and 2014-15.

ITA 3862/Mum/2025 for AY 2013-14 & 3950/Mum/2025 for AY 2014-15

6.1 For the aforesaid two appeals the assessee raised a specific issue in Ground No. 1 of the appeal, that the notice issued u/s 153C of the Act and the consequent assessment passed by the Assessing Officer are fundamentally flawed, being without jurisdiction, barred by limitation and passed in violation of the provisions of the Act.

6.2 To elaborate qua the aforesaid anomaly claimed in invoking the provisions of section 153C, Ld. AR submitted a written note before us which is extracted as under:

B. Proceedings for AY 2013-14 and AY 2014-15 are barred by limitation since the commencement point for the purposes of computation of the block of six Assessment years as per 1st Proviso to Section 153C has to be reconned from the date of recording of satisfaction note (Applicable for AY 2013-14 and AY 2014-15):

14. In addition to our contention that the proceedings for AY 2013-14 to AY 2019-20 ought to be quashed in absence of any satisfaction note recorded. Even otherwise for AY 2013-14 and AY 2014-15 the proceedings are barred by limitation as the same falls outside the block of 6 years when calculated from substituted dated of search in case of "Other than searched person" as mandated by 1" proviso to section 153C. The relevant dates to compute the block of six AY in present case are as follows:

i) Date of Search on Allana Group (searched person): 03.01.2019

ii) Date of recording of satisfaction note (though not supplied to assessee): 22.09.2020

iii) Date