Information Technology Act, 2000, S. 13 – Income tax Act, 1961, Section 149 – Whether “despatch” as per Section 13 of the Act of 2000 is sine qua non for issuance of Notice through electronic mail for the purpose of Section 149 of the Act of 1961? – Despatch as per Section 13 of the Act of 2000, is a sine qua non and happens when the electronic mail message leaves the ITBA's servers – The time taken by the ITBA's e-mail software system in triggering the e-mail and transmitting the said e-mails from the ITBA servers is attributable to the Department and therefore for the e-mails despatched on 1st April 2021 or thereafter, the Notices are held not to have been issued on 31st March 2021 – Take judicial notice of the fact that the Department from May, 2022, for Notices issued on or after 1st April 2021, has considered the date and time of despatch of the notices as recorded by the ITBA portal as the date of issuance and disregarded the date of generation of notice i.e. 31.03.2021 – For notices despatched on or after 1st April 2021, the Department, following the Supreme Court's order in Ashish Agarwal (Supra) considered the notices as issued under Section 148A of the Act of 1961 – This shows that the Department itself acknowledges and admits that the date of generation is distinct from date of issuance and the Department considers the despatch by ITBA Portal as the date of issue for the purpose of Section 149 of the Act of 1961.
Held that the time taken by the ITBA's e-mail software system in triggering the e-mail and transmitting the said e-mails from the ITBA servers was attributable to the Department and therefore for the e-mails despatched on 1st April 2021 or thereafter, the Notices were held not to have been issued on 31st March 2021.
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