Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Waseem Ahmed, Member (A) and Siddhartha Nautiyal

ORDER

Waseem Ahmed, Member (A)

1. The captioned appeal has been filed at the instance of the assessee against the order of the Learned Commissioner of Income Tax-VI, Ahmedabad (in short "Ld. CIT(A)") arising in the matter of assessment order passed under s. 158BC of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (here-in-after referred to as "the Act") relevant to the Assessment Year 01.04.1985 to 31.03.1995 & 01.04.1995 to 21.12.1995.

2. The assessee has challenged the validity of the assessment framed under section 158BC read with section 254 of the Act on the ground that the same has been framed without proper jurisdiction.

3. At the time of hearing, the Ld.AR submitted that the jurisdiction over the assessee was vested with the Add.CIT/Jt.CIT Bhavnagar, Range-1, by virtue of the order bearing No. HQ-VI/6-4/1/Jurisdiction U/s 120/2001-02 dated 01/08/2001, placed on pages 181 to 184 of the Paper Book. But the assessment has been framed by the A.C.I.T Circle-1, Bhavnagar who holds much lower position in ranking than Add.CIT/Jt. CIT. Therefore, the assessment has been framed by ACIT circle-1 without having proper jurisdiction and consequently the assessment in dispute is not sustainable/maintainable. On the contrary, the Ld. DR before us vide letter dated 23-3-2023 submitted as under:

"2. In this case, the Hon'ble ITAT vide order in IT(SS)A Nos. 8 & (/RJT/2002 dated 11.07.2008 for the Block Period 01.04.1985 to 21.12.01995 had set aside and remitted the matter back to the AO to settle the matter of jurisdiction by referring the same to the Appropriate Authority, and thereafter make the assessment of the assessee. Following the direction, a reference was made by the ACIT Cir-1, Bhavnagar vide his letter F.No. ACIT/Cir-1/124/BAS/08-09 dated 03/02/2009 which was forwarded vide endorsement No.BR-l/Cent.BAS/2008-09/498 dated 10.02.09 of the Addl. CIT, Bhavnagar Range-1, Bhavnagar to the Commissioner of Income-tax, Ahmedabad-VI, Ahmedabad.

3. Vide order u/s. 124(4) of the I T Act dated 08.06.2009, the Commissioner of Income-tax, Ahmedabad -Vi, Ahmedabad has held that the jurisdiction over the assessee vests with the ACIT, Circle-1, Bhavnagar and the matter of jurisdiction was decided accordingly as per the directions contained in the order of Hon'ble ITAT. In the said order, the CIT-VI, Ahmedabad had categorically rebutted the objections of assessee that the order u/s. 120 dated 01.08.2001 excludes the cases transferred u/s. 127 of the IT Act from the operation thereof. The relevant para No. 8 & 9 of the order is reproduce here below for ready reference:

"8. The aforesaid submissions are not found acceptable as the assessee has not correctly appreciated the provisions of section 127 of the Act. Consequent upon the restructuring of the department, the post of erstwhile Assessing Officer i.e. DGT(asst), Special Range-8, Ahmedabad stood abolished and the present Assessing Officer, namely, ACIT, Circle-1, Bhavnagar was vested the territorial jurisdiction over the cases of the assessee as per the order u/s.120 dated 01.08.2001 passed by the CIT. Section 127 of the i.T. Act empowers the Commissioner to transfer a case from an Assessing Officer subordinate to him to another Assessing Officer. In the p case, since the post of the Assessing Officer i.e. DCIT(Asst.), Special R? Ahmedabad under CIT(Central) stood abolished as a result of the restructuring of the Department, no order u/s.