SURBHI BUILDERS AND DEVELOPMENT Vs. CIT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE , by consent returnable forthwith. With the consent of Counsel and at their request the Petition is taken up for hearing and final disposal.

(2.) IN these proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Petitioner has questioned the legality of a notice dated 25 March 2011 purporting to reopen an assessment for Assessment Year 2004-05 issued in exercise of power conferred by section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Since the relevant year is AY 2004-05, the admitted position before the Court is that the reopening has taken place beyond a period of four years of the end of the relevant Assessment Year.

(3.) LEARNED Counsel appearing on behalf of the assessee submits that the sole ground on which the assessment is sought to be reopened is that in deciding an appeal for AY 2003-04, the CIT(Appeals) had observed that an addition of Rs. 56.87 lacs did not pertain to the assessment year under consideration in that appeal but that it pertains to AY 2004-05. The submission is that this cannot be regarded as a finding in relation to the order passed for AY 200304 since all that the CIT(Appeals) held was that the amount did not represent an income which shall accrue in AY 2003-04. In other words, the incidental finding that the amount represented income for AY 2004-05 is not a finding of CIT(Appeals) which in any event was not necessary for the decision in appeal for AY 2003-04.