ROAD CARGO MOVERS PVT LTD vs. Union of India AND ORS

1 IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Original Side Present :- Hon’ble Mr. Justice Md. Nizamuddin W.P.O. No. 1768 of 2021 M/S. ADORABLE COMMERCE PVT LTD AND ANR Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER AND ORS. With W.P.O. No. 1771 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1772 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1774 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1777 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1779 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1780 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1781 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1784 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1786 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1787 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1791 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1793 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1794 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1796 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1797 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1798 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1799 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1800 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1801 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1802 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1803 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1804 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1806 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1807 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1809 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1811 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1812 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1813 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1814 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1815 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1817 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1818 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1819 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1821 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1822 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1823 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1827 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1830 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1831 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1835 of 2021, W.P.O. No. 1836 of 2021 For the Petitioners :- Mr. Subash Agarwal, Mr. Brijesh Kumar Singh, Mr. Avijit Dey, Mr. Rohin Jain, Mr. Aniket D. Agarwal, Mr. Sakshan Singhal, Mr. Anirudhya Dutta, Ms. Sapna Das, Mr. Siddhartha Das, Mrs. Vijaya Bhatia, Mr. Ganesh Prasad Shaw, Mr. Taraknath Jaiswal, Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Mr. Pradeep Jewrajka, Ms. Pooja Jewrajka, Mr. Manas Kumar Paul, Mr. Biswajit Mukherjee, Mr. Biswaroop Mukherjee, Mr. Soumyajit Mishra, Mr. Pratyush Jhunjhunwala, Mr. Samit Rudra, Advocates

2 For the Respondents :- Mr. Prabir Kumar Bhowmik, Ms. Sucharita Biswas, Mr,. Kaushik Dey, Mr. Tapan Bhanja, Mr. P.K. Bhowmick, Mr. Tilak Mitra, Mr. Uday Shankar Bhattacharyya, Ms. Ekta Sinha, Mr. Abhisek Addhya, Mr. Smarajit Ray Chowdhury, Advocates Dated : 19th January, 2022

MD. NIZAMUDDIN, J. Heard Learned Counsels appearing for the parties. In view of involvement of common question of law and similarity of facts in all these Writ Petitions, with the consent of the parties all these Writ Petitions have been heard together and are being decided by the present common judgement and order. Common facts and issues involved in all these Writ Petitions as appear on perusal of relevant record and upon considering the submissions of the parties are that the petitioners are aggrieved by the issuance of impugned notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on the ground that the same are barred by limitation and the respondent Income Tax Authority concerned, before issuing the impugned notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, have not observed the statutory formalities under Section 148 A of the Income Tax Act as prescribed by the Finance Act, 2021 which are applicable with effect from 1st April, 2021 before issuance of notices under Section 148 of the Act on or after 1st April, 2021. Issues arising in all the present Writ Petitions are purely legal and in all these Writ Petitions the assessees/petitioners have sought relief of quashing of the impugned re-assessment notices issued post 31st March, 2021 by the

3 respondent Income Tax Authority concerned under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, assessees/petitioners have also sought relief by way of a declaration declaring Explanations A(a)(ii)/A(b) to the Notification No. 20 [S.O. 1432 (E) dated 31st March, 2021 and Notification No. 38 [S.O.1703 (E)] dated 27th April, 2021 to the extent that the same extend the applicability of the “provisions of Section 148, Section 149 and Section 151 of the Act, as the case may be, as they stood as on the 31st March, 2021, before the commencement of the Finance Act, 2021” to the period beyond 31st March, 2021 as ultra vires the parent legislation, viz., The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as ‘ Relaxation Act, 2020’). At the outset, all the counsels appearing for the parties jointly submitted that the issues involved in these Writ Petitions are covered by the decision of the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court dated 30th September, 2021 in the case of ‘Ashok Kumar Agarwal –vs- Union of India through its Revenue Secretary North Block & Ors.’ (Writ Tax No. 524/2021) decided in favour of assessees/petitioners on 30.09.2021 and order of Rajasthan High Court dated 25th November, 2021 in the case of Bpip Infra Private Limited-vs.- Income Tax Officer, Ward 4 (1), Jaipur (S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 13297/2021) and the order of Delhi High Court 15th December, 2021 in the case of Man Mohan Kohli –vs- Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax & Anr. In (W.P. (C) 6176 of 2021) and judgement and order of this Court dated 17th January, 2022 in the case of Manoj Jain Vs. Union of

4 India & Ors. In WPA No. 11950 of 2021 and in the case of Bagaria Properites and Investment Private Limited & Anr. In WPO 244 of 2021. In view of judgement and order of this Court dated 17th January, 2022 in the case of Manoj Jain Vs. Union of India & Ors. In WPA No. 11950 of 2021 and in the case of Bagaria Properties and Investment Private Limited & Anr. in WPO No. 244 of 2021, all these Writ Petitions herein are disposed of by allowing the same. Explanations A(a)(ii)/A(b) to the Notifications dated 31st March, 2021 and 27th April, 2021 are declared to be ultra vires the Relaxation Act, 2020 and are therefore bad in law and null and void. All the impugned notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act are quashed with liberty to the Assessing Officers concerned to initiate fresh re- assessment proceedings in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act as amended by Finance Act, 2021 and after making compliance of the formalities as required by the law. Urgent certified photocopy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance with all requisite formalities. (Md. Nizamuddin, J.) Sbghosh