Income Tax | Serving SCN On Old Email After Updation Is Invalid, Despite Earlier Acknowledgement: Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court stated that reply to one SCN on old email cannot justify non-service of subsequent notice on updated email. Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. stated that “one of the notices issued under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act was indeed served to the assessee in the old email ID, which was after updating the email ID. The assessee also submitted a response to the...
The Kerala High Court stated that reply to one SCN on old email cannot justify non-service of subsequent notice on updated email.
Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. stated that “one of the notices issued under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act was indeed served to the assessee in the old email ID, which was after updating the email ID. The assessee also submitted a response to the said notice as well. However, that by itself cannot be a reason to reject the contentions put forward by the assessee.”
The assessee/petitioner has filed the writ petition on the ground that he was not served with the show cause notice under Sections 143(2) and 142(1) of the Income Tax Act on the email address, which was newly created by them, despite intimation in this regard.
According to the assessee, the new email IDs were updated in the portal. Despite the above, when the show cause notice was issued, by the department, it was again issued in the old email ID without sending the same in the updated email ID.
Therefore, according to the assessee the said show cause notice was not received by the assessee and hence no reply could be submitted by them, which ultimately resulted in the assessment order.
The department argued that one of the notices was served in the old email ID, even after updating the email, but they received the same and responded to the said notice. Therefore, even after the updating the email ID the assessee was maintaining the old email ID as well. Therefore, the contention that show cause notice sent in the old email ID was not received by them cannot be accepted.
This is particularly because, the fact that, the assessee had intimated the change of email ID to the respondent, is not disputed. It is also an admitted fact that, the show cause notice was issued only in the old email ID and without sending the same in the new email ID. Therefore, there is no reason to discard the contentions raised by the assessee with regard to the non-receipt of show cause notice, added the bench.
The bench observed that the proceedings were finalized without any response from the part of the assessee as against the show cause notice as well.
In view of the above, the bench allowed the petition and directed the department to issue a fresh show cause notice in the new email ID.
Case Title: Mediacloud Studio Private Limited v. The Assessment Unit
Case Number: WP(C) NO. 17312 OF 2025
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 392
Counsel for Petitioner/ Assessee: Aditya Unnikrishnan, Nivedita A. Kamath, Saritha K.S., Binisha Baby, Aravind Rajagopalan Menon and Anil D. Nair
Counsel for Respondent/ Department: Jose Joseph and Cyriac Tom