Income Tax Reassessment Notice Generated On Last Day Of Limitation But Uploaded Next Day Due To Portal Glitch Is Time-Barred: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court recently found time-barred, an income tax reassessment notice generated by the Department on the last day of the limitation window but, issued to the assessee only a day after.

The limitation period in the case at hand expired on June 30, 2025 (inclusive).

The Income Tax Department claimed that the notice was generated on June 30, 2025 at 21:14:46 and signed on June 30, 2025 at 21:16:15 however, due to a technical glitch, it was shared on the assessee's e-filing portal only the next day.

The Assessee had sought quashing of this notice as being time-barred, citing Suman Jeet Agarwal v. Income Tax Officer, Ward 61(1) & Ors. (2022) where the High Court held that the time taken by the ITBA (Income Tax Business Application) portal in triggering the email (notice) and transmitting the said e-mail to the assessee is attributable to the Department.

In this case, the High Court had also held that e-mails (notice) dispatched on 1st April 2021 or thereafter, could not be said to have been issued on 31st March 2021.

The division bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Vinod Kumar observed that the Department failed to show anything contrary to the said decision. As such, it allowed the Assessee's plea and held that the proceedings were initiated against the Petitioner beyond the limitation.

Appearance: Mr Aditya Vohra and Mr Tanmay Dhakras, Advocates for Petitioner; Mr Sanjeev Menon and Mr Rahul Singh, JSCs and Mr Gaurav Kumar, Advocate for Respondents

Case title: Grid Solutions SAS v. Assistant Commissioner Of Income Tax & Anr.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1571

Case no.: W.P.(C) 16355/2025

Click here to read order