Motor And General Finance Ltd. vs Dcit, Spl. Range-16 on 29 January, 2004
Thus, in the
course of the appellate procedures prescribed under the Act, with which we
are presently concerned with, the appeal has only been provided against an
assessment order, and no separate appeal is provided against the order
passed by the Assessing Officer to decide the objection to the notice u/s 148
of the Act raised by the assessee. In the present case before us, in the
context of the appellate jurisdiction provided in terms of the Act, assessee has
a remedy to challenge the order of the Assessing Officer deciding the
objection to the notice issued u/s 148 of the Act alongwith the assessment
order only and, accordingly the assessee is free to raise a Ground challenging
the order of the Assessing Officer deciding the objection to notice issued u/s
148 of the Act. Pertinently, assessee has not raised any plea on the merits of
order of Assessing Officer deciding the objections raised against the notice
issued u/s 148 of the Act. Under these circumstances, in our view, the parity
of reasoning considered by the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of
General Motors India P. Ltd. (supra) does not render the assessment order as
null and void. Accordingly, we do not find any merit in the plea of the
assessee against the reopening of assessments by issuance of notice u/s 148
of the Act for the captioned assessment years. Thus, on this aspect also,
assessee fails.