ITAT Delhi Quashes Assessment for Invalid 143(2) Notice Not in CBDT Prescribed Format

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Delhi has recently ruled in a case where the petitioner claimed that the notice issued by the assessing officer violated the CBDT instruction regarding the format.

The petitioner, Anita Garg, filed an appeal before the ITAT against an order received by the assessing officer dated 13.06.2024 for the assessment year 2017-18. The petitioner raised some grounds in her appeal, among which one ground was that the assessing officer had wrongly issued notice under section 143(2) of the Income Tax Act, as it violates the CBDT Instruction F.No.225/157/2017/ITA-II dated 23.06.2017.

The petitioner claimed that this notice is invalid and bad in law. The petitioner submitted that, CBDT has prescribed mandatory revised formats for all scrutiny notices issued under section 143(2) of the Act in its instructions dated 23.06.2017. Now since the AO did not issue the notice as per the prescribed revised format, the notice is invalid and unenforceable in law. The petitioner relied on the judgement passed in the case of Hind Ceramics Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT, Tapas Kumar Das v. ITO, Sajal Biswas v. I.T.O, and Srimanta Kumar Shit vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax.

The Court observed the decision passed in the Tribunal in the case of Hind Cyramics Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT in ITA, in which the tribunal quashed the notice issued under section 143(2) because it did not follow the prescribed format as per the CBDT instructions. Following the judgements of earlier cases, the court held that the notice issued by Assessing Officer u/s 143(3) dated 27.12.2019 is bad in law and void ab initio as it was not in the prescribed format as notified by the CBDT. Therefore, the court quashed the notice. However, the court stated other grounds raised by the petitioner are not adjudicated, as they become only academic at this stage. Therefore, the court partly allowed the appeal of the petitioner.