Maintainance of order sheets. - Income Tax - 1337/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1337/CBDT Dated: June 4, 1980 Attention is invited to para 3 of chapter XII of office manual vol.II containing instructions regarding the maintenance of order sheets. 2. A case came to the notice of the board wherein the Wealth-tax officer computed the net wealth of the assessee as agreed to by him and recorded in order sheet A.O. issued. This was done on 15th September 1971. The signature of the assessee was also obtained in the order sheet on that date. Actually however the assessment order in respect of the relevant assessment was signed and issued only in January 1972 and there was a direction in the assessment order that penalty proceedings should be initiated. The ITAT on appeal against the penalty imposed, held that in fact the assessment was completed in September 1971 when the officer recorded in the order sheet that the assessment order was issued and the penalty proceedings initiated in January 1972 when the order was signed, could not be held to have been initiated before the completion of the assessment proceedings and were therefore without jurisdiction. Since the order of the Tribunal was based on a question of fact as to when the assessment was completed the department's attempts to have a case stated to the High court also failed. 3. The board have taken serious notice of the careless manner in which the wealth tax officer made the entries in the relevant order sheet which led to the loss of revenue. The board want to reiterate the need for strict observance of the existing instructions regarding maintenance of order sheets. The order sheet being contemporaneous record of the proceedings assumes evidentiary value. Accordingly, an ITO should be very careful in writing up an order sheet. Over-writings are to be avoided and so also interpolations. The ITO should see that the order sheet contains datewise record of events relating to particular assessment. Each entry bear a consecutive serial number to ensure completeness and continuity of the proceedings. Every order which has a bearing on the proceeding before the ITO should be dated and the entry should be made in the order sheet. The order passed must be complied with by the office as expeditiously as possible. The officers are, therefore required to maintain the order sheets chronologically correctly and completely. 4. The above instructions apply mutatis mutandis to proceedings under other direct taxes as well. 5. IACs and CsIT during their periodical and surprise inspections should make it a point to verify how the order sheets are maintained and pull up officers who fail to carry out instructions contained in this circular.