ITAT Delhi Quashes Reassessment Against Sai Expo Fab Over Time-Barred Notice

Tribunal Finds Reopening Beyond Statutory Limitation

The Delhi Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal set aside reassessment proceedings initiated against Sai Expo Fab Pvt. Ltd. for Assessment Year 2014–15, holding that the notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act was barred by limitation. The Bench observed that although the original reassessment notice was issued under the old regime in June 2021, the subsequent notice under the post-2021 framework was served well beyond the surviving statutory period available to the Assessing Officer. Relying on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal, the Tribunal reiterated that once the legal fiction under the Ashish Agarwal directions applied, the Revenue was required to complete the reassessment process strictly within the remaining limitation window after accounting for permissible exclusions. In Sai Expo Fab’s case, the notice under Section 148 was issued in July 2022, even though the permissible period had expired in June 2022.

Consequential Assessment Also Set Aside

Given that the foundational notice itself was time-barred, the Tribunal held that the reassessment order passed under Sections 147 read with 144B could not survive in law. It accordingly quashed both the notice and the assessment, granting full relief to the assessee. The ruling reinforces strict adherence to statutory timelines in reopening proceedings and underscores that transitional protections granted to the Revenue post-2021 do not extend limitation periods beyond what the law expressly permits. The decision is expected to have significant implications for similarly placed reassessment cases arising from notices issued during the regime shift.