On noticing shortcomings in the assessment order the Gujarat high Court in [2022] 446 ITR 571 (Guj)
issued following advisory to the Assessing Officers of the department:-
“ Before we close this matter, we would like to observe something relevant. As far as possible, the Revenue should ensure that the assessee does not get an unnecessary chance to redress any grievance by invoking the writ jurisdiction of the High Court under article 226 of the Constitution of India. With the enactment of section 144B, all assessments are now going to be faceless. In such circumstances, the Revenue should be a little more careful and should not allow the assessee, more particularly, an unscrupulous assessee to have a cakewalk in the matter. If on small issues, the assessees are going to succeed and if every time, the matter is to be remitted, the same will not be in the interest of the Revenue. Therefore, the Revenue should ensure that :
(i) the impugned assessment order is not verbatim the draft assessment order/show-cause notice.
(ii) the assessment order should reflect application of mind.
(iii) the assessment order should deal with by and large all the aspects which the assessee might have raised in his reply to the show-cause notice.
If the aforesaid three things are kept in mind, then we are sure that there should not be any difficulties and the litigations in the High Court can also be curtailed.”
In this case the AO made hefty additions u/s 68 without making proper inquiry and also without giving adequate opportunity of personal hearing sought by the taxpayer.