Anushka Sharma –
Published On: October 29, 2021 at 13:50 IST
The Bombay High Court Invalidated the Faceless Assessment Order, which was issued without a Draft Assessment order and without a personal Hearing.
Shreeji Investment & Advisory Services, the Petitioner, was served with notices under Section 142(1) of the Act, as well as a show cause notice via the e-portal. The Petitioner, who also requested a personal Hearing, provided responses.
Respondent stated in the impugned Order,“During the assessment proceedings assessee sought VC/personal Hearing on 24th February 2021, which was fixed on 22nd April 2021, but due to technical problems VC could not be Held.” Therefore, on this ground alone the impugned order requires to be set aside.
The division bench of Justice Amit B. Borkar and Justice K.R. Shriram noted that one of the grounds is that there is no mention of these additions in the alleged Draft Assessment Order or any of the notices issued in the course of assessment proceedings, and that the Petitioner was not given any opportunity to file objections to these additions.
The Court also said that there is no rejection of this fact in the Respondent’s Affidavit Reply. The Affiant has gone into detail about the benefits of the two additions, but he did not deny that neither the claimed Draft Assessment order nor any of the Notices have even included in the proposed additions under Section 68 of the Act. Issuance of show cause notice is the preliminary step that is required to be undertaken.