Jugal Kishore Khandelwal Son Of Late Shri Damodar Lalkhatoria v. Income Tax Officer, Ward 1(1), Jaipur

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCH AT JAIPUR D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 16203/2024 Jugal Kishore Khandelwal Son Of Late Shri Damodar LalKhatoria, Aged About 74 Years, Resident Of House No. 626, BalaJi Ka Rasta, Ghat Gate Bazar, Jaipur. ----Petitioner Versus Income Tax Officer, Ward 1(1), Jaipur Having Its Address At NewCentral Revenue Building, Bhagwan Dass Road, Jaipur. ----Respondent For Petitioner(s): Mr. Siddharth RankaFor Respondent(s): Mr. Sandeep Pathak HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. K.R. SHRIRAM HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MANEESH SHARMA 03/09/2025 Order 1.Mr. Pathak, who appears on advance copy, agrees withMr. Siddharth Ranka that one of the grounds raised certainly iscovered by a judgment of this Court. 2.Ground referred to is that the notice dated 31[st] March 2024under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 has been issuedby a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) and not FacelessAssessing Offider (FAO) and this Court in the case of ShreeCement Limited Vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income-Tax& Others[1] following Sharda Devi Chhajer Vs. The Income TaxOfficer & Another[2]and Hexaware Technologies Ltd. Vs.Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Circle 15(1)(2)[3], hasheld that such a notice will be bad and not valid. 1DB Civil Writ Petition No.10540/2024, dated 05.08.2025 at Jaipur Bench (unreported)22025 SCCOnLine Raj 338622025 SCCOnLine Raj 3386 3[2024] 162 taxmann.com 225 (Bombay) 3.At the same time, Mr. Pathak states that in HexawareTechnologies Ltd. (supra), Revenue has preferred a SpecialLeave Petition and notice has been issued. Counsel states that inview of the law as it stands today, Court may grant the prayer ofpetitioner but in case the Apex Court interferes with judgment inHexaware Technologies Ltd. (supra), Sharda Devi Chhajer(supra) or Shree Cement Limited (supra), then Revenue shouldbe given liberty to revive the notice issued under Section 148 ofthe Act. 4.Mr. Siddharth Ranka states that in view of the above, for thepresent, petitioner will reserve his right to raise other grounds atan appropriate stage. 5.Therefore, keeping open all rights and contentions of parties,we quash and set aside notice dated 31[st] March 2024 issued underSection 148 of the Act with liberty as prayed. 6.Petition disposed. 7.Consequently, all pending applications, if any, also stand disposed. 8.We are informed that after the petition was filed, anassessment order dated 30[th] March 2025 has already been passed.Since we have held that the notice issued under Section 148 ofthe Act itself is not valid, the consequential assessment ordercannot be sustained. The same is also quashed and set aside. (MANEESH SHARMA),J (K.R. SHRIRAM),CJ N.Gandhi/Deepa-35