Pursuant to earlier directions of the Tribunal remanding the transfer pricing issues to the Assessing Officer/TPO for fresh consideration with liberty to the assessee to raise all grounds, the Assessing Officer completed assessment without issuing a draft assessment order under section 144C(1). The High Court held that once the matter was remitted for fresh adjudication, the earlier draft assessment order ceased to exist and any fresh variation prejudicial to the assessee necessarily attracted the mandatory procedure prescribed under section 144C. The requirement to issue a draft assessment order applies equally to an assessment framed pursuant to Tribunal remand and non-compliance cannot be justified on the ground that proceedings originated earlier. Passing a final assessment order without first issuing a draft assessment order deprives the assessee of the statutory right to approach the Dispute Resolution Panel and constitutes not a procedural irregularity but an incurable illegality. Accordingly, the  assessment order was quashed. (AY.  2012-13)