Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

12. At the outset it requires to be factually noticed that the reopening order of the AO only refers to the report of Statutory Auditor under Section 44AB of the Act which report was already enclosed with the return filed by the Assessee. Therefore, factually, there was no new material that the AO came across so as to have „reasons to believe that the income had escaped assessment‟.

13. As far as the legal requirement is concerned, the Court finds that the decision in CIT v. Orient Craft Ltd. (supra) answers the question squarely in favour of the Assessee in the facts of the present case. In Orient Craft Ltd. this Court considered the decisions of the Supreme Court in CIT v.

18. It may be noticed at this stage that the decision in Orient Craft Ltd has been followed by this Court in Madhukar Khosla v. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax (2013) 354 ITR 356.

19. There is no ground urged in the present appeal by the Revenue that the decision in CIT v. Orient Craft Ltd. was erroneously decided and requires reconsideration. During the course of arguments it was submitted that having regard to the decision of the Full Bench in CIT-VI v. Usha International Ltd. (2012) 348 ITR 485, the question should be re-examined by the Court.

20. In the first place, it requires to be noted that the decision in Orient Craft Ltd. was delivered after the decision of the Full Bench in Usha International Ltd. (supra). Secondly, the subsequent decision in Madhukar Khosla noted the decision in Usha International Ltd. and reiterated the dictum in Orient Craft Ltd. Again in a decision dated 28th January 2015 in Mohan Gupta (HUF) v. Commissioner of Income Tax-XI (2014) 366 ITR 115 (Del) the Court reiterated the decision in Orient Craft Ltd. Thirdly, the Court finds that the questions framed for consideration by the Full Bench in Usha International Ltd. as set out in para 1 of the said judgment did not pertain to reopening of an assessment under Section 143 (1) of the Act. The four questions referred to the Full Bench were as under:

21. Therefore, the central issue examined in the decision of the Full Bench in Usha International Ltd. was as to what constituted a „change of opinion‟. The Court, therefore, does not consider the decision in Orient Craft Ltd. as being contrary to the decision in Usha International Ltd. In other words, there is no occasion for the Court to refer to a larger bench the question of the correctness of the decision in Orient Craft Ltd. which decision squarely applies to the facts of the present case.