Reassessment Notice Issued on Surrendered PAN Quashed by HC

Case Details: Panchsheel Mercantile Co-Op Bank Ltd. vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax [2025] 179 taxmann.com 676 (Gujarat)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• Bhargav D. Karia & Pranav Trivedi, JJ.
• Manish J. Shah, Adv. for the Petitioner.
• Karan G. Sanghani, Sr. Standing Counsel for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

Assessee, a cooperative society, surrendered its old PAN and was allotted a new PAN. From the assessment year 2014-15 onwards, it filed returns on the new PAN, and scrutiny assessments for the assessment years 2014-15 to 2017-18 were completed on the new PAN.

For the relevant assessment year, the Assessing Officer received information flagged on the CBDT Insight portal that certain transactions relating to cash deposits, withdrawals, and foreign remittances totalling Rs. 5.49 crore cropped up under the assessee’s old PAN.

Accordingly, the Assessing Officer issued a notice under section 148A(a) to the assessee on the old, surrendered PAN. Subsequently, a notice under section 148A(b) followed, and an order under section 148A(d) and a notice under section 148 were issued on the old PAN.

Assessee filed the instant writ petition before the Gujarat High Court.

High Court Held

The Gujarat High Court held that it is not in dispute that the formal notice was issued under the old, surrendered PAN, which was communicated to the office of the revenue way back on 14-6-2019. The return for the relevant assessment year 2019-20 was filed by the assessee under the new PAN AADAT9507D, which was allotted to the assessee. Inspite of this fact, the revenue had passed the order under section 148A(d) as well as notice under section 148 under the old PAN.

It is settled law that the revenue authority cannot issue notices on an old PAN that has already been surrendered. In view of such a fact, the impugned order under section 148A(d) as well as the notice under section 148 are hereby quashed and set aside. However, the revenue would be at liberty to initiate fresh proceedings by issuing notice on the new PAN in accordance with the law. In view of the aforementioned observations, the petition is allowed with the following directions.