In WPA 4551 OF 2023-CAL HC- Calcutta HC quashes Notice passed u/s 148 of Income Tax Act as it was issued in name of non-existing company
Justice Md. Nizamuddin [20-03-2023]

Read Order: S. K. Finserve Private Limited v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Circle 7(1), Kolkata & Ors 

LE Correspondent

Kolkata, March 24, 2023: The Calcutta High Court has allowed the assessee’s challenge to the impugned notice relating to assessment year 2013-14 under section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 where notice had been issued in the name of the company which had already been amalgamated and the Department had been intimated about the same.

The petitioner had put up a case before the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Md. Nizamuddin that the company had already been amalgamated in 2016 w.e.f. April 1, 2015 and the department had been intimated about this amalgamation. Hence, such notice in the name of a non-existing company was not tenable in the eye of law.

The  petitioner’s counsel had also on a decision of the Gujarat High Court in Takshashila Realties Pvt. Ltd. v. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax,2016 SCC OnLine Guj 6462,  wherein it was opined that once the scheme for amalgamation was sanctioned by the Court, from that date amalgamating Company would not be in existence. Under the circumstances, the impugned notices, which were issued against the non-existent Company, couldnot be sustained.

The Bench was of the view that the impugned notice was not tenable in the eye of law and all further steps pursuant to the said impugned notice also were not tenable in the eye of law. 

“This writ petition is allowed and the impugned notice is quashed solely on the ground that the impugned notice was issued in the name of non-existing company in spite of revenue having notice and knowledge of non-existence of such Company”, the Bench asserted.