Section 144BA(2)

Section 144BA(2) — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 144BA(2), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Manipal Education and Medical Group India Pvt Ltd v ACIT — where the s.148 reassessment falls, the s.144BA(1) and (2) GAAR notices issued inside it fall with it as consequential High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  The GAAR reference in my case was made inside a reassessment. If I succeed in getting the s.148A(d) order and the s.148 notice set aside, do the s.144BA notices go too, or do I have to fight them separately?
  They go with it. In a writ petition in which the Revenue itself accepted, through the Additional Solicitor General, that the matter should be remanded to the stage before the s.148 notice because the principles of natural justice had been violated, the Karnataka High Court set aside the s.148A(d) order and the s.148 notice, both dated 31 March 2022, and then quashed "all actions initiated pursuant to the above under Section 142(2A), Section 144BA(1) and Section 144BA(2) of the Act, being consequential" — naming a notice dated 21 March 2023, an order dated 30 March 2023, a notice dated 24 March 2023 for invocation of Chapter X-A and a further notice dated 26 April 2023. The matter was remanded to the Assessing Officer to begin again from the s.148A(b) stage, with thirty days to reply, and all contentions of both parties kept open.
• Statutory position — the GAAR procedure: section 144BA, Rules 10UB and 10UC, and the Approving Panel whose direction binds both sides CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  My client has received a notice under Chapter X-A saying his arrangement may be an impermissible avoidance arrangement. What is the procedure from here, who actually decides, and can I appeal the decision?
  GAAR cannot be applied by the Assessing Officer on his own. He must refer the matter to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner under s.144BA(1) in Form No. 3CEG after first putting a written notice to the assessee under Rule 10UB(1); the Principal Commissioner then issues his own notice under s.144BA(2) giving the assessee up to sixty days to object and a hearing, and either drops the matter in Form No. 3CEH or refers it to the Approving Panel in Form No. 3CEI. The Approving Panel's direction under s.144BA(6) is binding on the assessee and on the Commissioner and his subordinates, and s.144BA(14) bars any appeal under the Act against that direction — the only route against it is a writ.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.