AO Has Reduced The Procedure To An Empty Formality, To Be Deprecated: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court had quashed the Assessment Order and held that the assessing officer has reduced the procedure to an empty formality, which has to be deprecated.The division bench of Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya has observed that the first 21 pages of the assessment order are a verbatim extract of the show cause notice. The Calcutta High Court had quashed the Assessment Order and held that the assessing officer has reduced the procedure to an empty formality, which has to be deprecated. The court noted that on a cursory perusal of the assessment order dated 20th December 2022, which is impugned in the writ petition, one gets an impression that it is in compliance with the SOP as it contains requisite sub-headings but however, on a closure reading of the assessment order, it is found that the assessing officer has acted in a most perverse manner in passing the assessment order.