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TMI Blog1925 (8) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ve issued for the guidance of their officers a manual and this case has been put forward in the form of asking us to say whether instruction32 of the Manual is in consonance with the words of the Act. Ordinarily we should not view the matter from that point of view, because the Manual, which is called notes of instructions, is obviously merely a document for the guidance of officials. All we have to determine is two short questions: first, whether these bungalows in the circumstances of the case can be described within the meaning of the section as being vacant and the second question, which I shall deal with separately in a moment, as to whether the assessment in this case can be made retrospective for one year under the provisions of sect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not only was that the case but that servants of the Rajah were actually kept on the premises in order to get it ready for occupation whenever he wanted to go there 'he is assessable. In these circumstances I think that the case falls within the exact words of Lush J. in The Queen v. The Assessment Committee of St. Pancras [1877] 2 QBD 581. The words are to be found at page 588 where the learned Judge says this: "If, however, he (that is, the owner) furnishes it (that is, the vacant house) and keeps it ready for habitation whenever he pleases to go to it, he is an occupier though he may not reside in it one day in a year. " That seems to me to be conclusive and I respectfully agree with that view and think that that is the p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion is forbidden by the alternative case put in the section. "Where the income''. has been assessed at too low a rate", that cannot be a matter of mere inadvertence; that must refer to a deliberate assessment made by the Income-tax Officer in the preceding year with knowledge of the facts and circumstances. It appears to me that a similar view must be taken of the previous words "escaped assessment" and that it applied to cases where the Income-tax Officer has deliberately adopted an erroneous construction of the Act just as much as to a case where the Officer has not considered the matter at all, but simply omitted the assessable property from his view and from his assessment. In my opinion, the questions referr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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