Law:

Section:

Section 153, read with section 144B, of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Assessment - Period of limitation - Assessment years 1971-72 to 1975-76 and 1978-79 - Whether section 144B contemplates affording a fresh opportunity of hearing to the assessee when matter is pending before the IAC and there is change of Assessing Officer - Held, no - Whether, therefore, time taken in the rehearing proceedings in such a case can be excluded for purposes of limitation - Held, no Section 129 of the Income-tax Act, 1941 - Income-tax authorities - Change in incumbent of an office - Whether in a case where there is a change of the ITO while proceedings are pending before IAC, section 129 will apply and assessee can demand rehearing by succeeding ITO - Held, no FACTS In respect of the assessment years 1971-72 to 1975-76 and 1978-79, the ITO forwarded the draft orders along with the assessee 's objections to the IAC. While the matter was pending before the IAC, the ITO was transferred. On the IAC's asking the assessee if it would like a rehearing, the assessee requested for the same and an opportunity of rehearing was afforded to it. The ITO sent his report on 15-9-1981 and the draft orders were ultimately approved on 15-10-1981 and the assessments were completed on 16-10-1981. Under section 153, read with section 144B, the assessments should have been completed within 180 days from 31-3-1981, i.e., by 27-9-1981. In appeal, the assessee contended that the assessments for the said years were barred by limitation. This was accepted by the Tribunal. On reference, the department submitted that as the ITO had given an opportunity of rehearing to the assessee, further time was taken in making the assessment, therefore, under the proviso to section 129, that time would have to be excluded for the purpose of limitation. HELD Section 144B does not contemplate affording a fresh opportunity of hearing to the assessee when the matter is pending before the IAC except when directions prejudicial to the assessee are to be issued and for this purpose whether or not the Assessing Officer remains the same, is immaterial. As the Assessing Officer is barred from giving effect to the directions issued to…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492