Assessee To Be Given Minimum 7 Days Time To Respond To The Reassessment Notice: Meghalaya High Court

The petitioner/assessee has challenged the notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on the grounds that it has been issued without following the mandatory procedure under Section 148A of the Income Tax Act.

The petitioner submitted that the AO ought to have afforded the assessee seven days' time to respond. The notice was issued to an email ID that was used for filing the return for the assessment year 2017-18.

The assessee submits that the notice pertains to the assessment year 2018-19 and, by then, the email id of the assessee was changed. The notice was physically delivered at the address of the assessee on March 30, 2022. Even before the reply could be issued, the reassessment notice was issued by recording that the assessee had not responded to the previous notice.

The court ordered that the assessee be given seven days to answer to the reassessment notice. Because the procedure was not followed, the notice under Section 148 and the order are set aside. The court restored the matter ​​to the initial stage.

"The assessee will have seven days from today to respond to the initial notice dated March 24, 2022. Such response will be considered by the appropriate authority before passing any order or taking any further steps, whether under Section 148 of the Act or otherwise," the court said.

Case Title: Highgrowth Commodities Trade Private Limited Versus The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax & ors

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (Meg) 22

Case No: WP (C) No.161/2022 with MC (WPC) No.80/2022

Dated: 14.06.2022

Counsel For Petitioner: Sr. Advocates Abhratosh Mazumdar, Kaushik Goswami

Counsel For Respondent: ASG N. Mozika

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