Section 147, 292B of Income Tax Act, 1961— In the facts of present case, where the assessee had failed to file any return of income under any of the provisions of section 139 of the Act and had failed even in terms of notice issued under section 142(1) of the Act, then the provisions of section 144 of the Act are attracted and the Assessing Officer has the power to pass an order to the best of his judgment. The third condition of having filed return of income and not complying with notice issued under section 143(2) of the Act do not apply to the present facts. In such scenario, we hold that the order passed under section 143(3) r.w.s. 147 of the Act suffers from infirmity and the Act itself provides an alternate for completing the assessment under section 144 of the Act.

The connected issue which arises is whether the defect in applying the said section is curable under section 292B of the Act or not?

Held that— we hold that section 292B of the Act cannot be pressed into action to cure the defect in the assessment made in the present case.
Accordingly, we hold that assessment order passed in the present case is both invalid and bad in law. Thus, the additional ground of appeal raised by assessee is allowed. We do not adjudicate the other grounds of appeal.[GULAB BADGUJAR (HUF) VERSUS THE INCOME TAX OFFICER, CENTRAL-1, NASHIK] [2019] 17 ITCD Online (4) [ITAT PUNE]