Section 148(2) of the Income Tax Act

Documents found in the possession of a searched person are presumed to belong to that person under Section 132(4A) and do not automatically belong to a third party merely because the transactions recorded therein pertain to or relate to such third party.

For an addition to income or issuance of a reassessment notice under Section 148, there must be a valid 'reason to believe' that income has escaped assessment; mere suspicion cannot form the basis for such action, as 'reason to believe' is not the same as 'reason to suspect'.

Reassessment proceedings initiated by a notice under Section 148 are invalid if the requisite sanction or approval under Section 151 is not obtained from the proper competent authority. This fundamental defect is substantive and cannot be cured.

Section 147 can be invoked to tax income found during a search in the hands of a person other than the person searched, even without invoking Section 153C, although the latter provides specific jurisdiction for search assessments.

An assessment order is liable to be struck down if the Assessing Officer fails to communicate the 'reasons to believe' upon which the case was reopened. Such a failure constitutes a brazen violation of governing legal principles and the assumption of jurisdiction is unsustainable.

When a conflict arises between the assessment procedures for block periods (erstwhile Section 158BC) and normal reassessment provisions (Sections 147/148), the block period provisions prevail.