Mohit Ltd. filed its return of income under section 139(1) on 14th September, 2023 for A.Y. 2023-24. The return was found to be defective, and an intimation was issued on 11th May, 2024, directing the assessee to rectify

Notice of Scrutiny Assessment u/s 143(2) If an assessee files his return of income u/s 139 or in response to a notice received u/s 142(1), the assessing officer or the prescribed income tax authority, shall serve a notice on the assessee if he considers it necessary to ensure that, The assessee has not understated the income or Has not computed excessive loss or Has not short paid the tax However, no such notice can be issued after the expiry of 3 months from the end of the financial year in which the return is furnished. The issue under consideration is whether, for the purpose of computing limitation period under section 143(2), the relevant date is the date of filing of the original return of income or the date of removal of defects in response to a notice issued under section 139(9). The same issue came up before in DCIT vs Travel Designer India Pvt. Ltd. vs (2025) 482 ITR 283. In this case, the High Court noted that since the return was defective, the assessee was called upon to remove such defects, which was removed within the time allowed by the Assessing Officer. Therefore, upon such defects being removed, the return would relate back to the date of filing original return. Consequently, the limitation for issuance of notice under section 143(2) would be three months from the end of the financial year in which the original return under section 139(1) was filed. In the present case, notice under section 143(2) has been issued on 23rd June, 2025, which is much beyond the period of limitation. Therefore, such notice is barred by limitation and cannot be sustained. Accordingly, the notice issued under section 143(2) is not a valid notice.