SAKSHAM COMMODITIES LIMITED Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This batch of writ petitions impugns notices issued under Sec. 153C of the Income Tax Act, 19611 with the petitioners-assessees asserting that in the absence of any material pertaining to the Assessment Years2 which are proposed to be reopened and assessed having been gathered during the course of a search, the assumption of jurisdiction is wholly illegal and unsustainable in law. The submission principally flows from the recordal of facts as appearing in each of the Satisfaction Notes drawn by the Assessing Officer3 of the non-searched person and the same carrying no reference specific to the AY in respect of which the impugned notices have come to be issued. In some of the writ petitions, the Satisfaction Notes as drawn by the AO of the non- searched person had neither been provided to the writ petitioners nor were they brought on the record by the respondents. However, submissions were addressed on the assertion as made in the writ petition with the position so set out not being disputed by the respondents. In those cases, we have consequently proceeded on the basis that the incriminating material did not pertain to the AY in respect of which reopening was impugned.

(2.) According to the writ petitioners, merely because incriminating material may have been found or discovered and which would pertain to a particular AY, the same would not constitute sufficient basis for initiation of assessment or reassessment proceedings in respect of the six AYs' preceding the year of search or the entire block comprised in the "relevant assessment year" as defined by Explanation 1 to Sec. 153A of the Act.

(3.) The challenge is founded on the contention that in the case of completed assessments which may fall either within the ambit of six preceding AYs' or proverbially within the scope of "relevant assessment year", a reassessment can be initiated only in respect of those AYs' corresponding to which material may have been discovered in the course of a search and basis which the AO of the "other person" would be of the opinion that the same is likely have a "bearing on the determination of the total income" of the non-searched entity. The additional submission was that the requirement of incriminating material existing and thus constituting the basis for invocation of Sec. 153C would be liable to be viewed on identical terms, even in those cases where assessments may come to abate. The petitioners have placed the following details in respect of each of the individual writ petitioners which form part of this batch in the form of a chart which is extracted hereinbelow: