9911796707
TMI Blog1971 (2) TMI 12X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y assessed under the Act. The family has income from house properties and rice mill known as " Chowdhury Rice Mill ". For the assessment years 1957-58, 1958-59 and 1959-60, the family has been duly assessed by the respondent No. 3 after verbal discussion with the petitioner. On 19th March, 1965, three notices were issued to Chowdury Rice Mill by the respondent No. 1 for the very same years with a direction to submit returns of income on the ground that the respondent No. 1 had reasons to believe that income of the petitioner escaped assessment within the meaning of section 147 of the Act for which it is also stated that necessary satisfaction of the Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal I, has been obtained. Thereafter, three notices wer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for hearing on 6th March, 1970. Then, in spite of the petitioner's demand for justice the proceedings were not dropped. That is how, in short, the petitioner felt aggrieved and obtained the present rule. The main grievance of the petitioner in this case is that the impugned notices for reopening assessment were issued without jurisdiction as conditions precedent for the issuing of such notices were absent. Since the decision of the Supreme Court in Calcutta Discount Co. Ltd. v. Income-tax Officer, Calcutta, which was a case under section 34 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, the law is fairly settled so far that the question as to whether the Income-tax Officer had reason to believe is dependent upon two conditions. First is that the Inc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... assessment years materials came into his possession that the assessee had certain other businesses of his own in benami names during the relevant years which were not disclosed by the assessee at the time of original assessment for those years. Consequently, it is stated that the income of the said assessee from those businesses escaped assessment on account of omission or failure on the part of the assessee to disclose fully or truly all necessary or material facts for those years. In the premises the Income-tax Officer had asserted that he had reasons to believe that the petitioner failed to disclose fully or truly all material facts necessary for its assessment as a result whereof the income of the assessee chargeable to tax escaped ass ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... earing were issued but the petitioner did neither file any return nor, as appears from the record, appeared before the Income-tax Officer on any of the dates. Although it is stated in paragraphs 5 and 8 of the petition that the petitioners' representative did not only appear once but on number of occasions and he was given assurance that the proceedings will be dropped, the respondent, however, denied these allegations in the affidavit-in-opposition. Then similar notices were issued again on 1st February, 1969, fixing hearing on 19th February, 1969, and then a letter was issued on 18th February, 1970, by the Income-tax Officer, stating that the petitioner's case will be finally heard on 25th February, 1970, when the petitioner filed his ret ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a judgment of K.L. Roy J. in Smt. Suniti Devi Jaipuria v. Income-tax Officer, Matter No. 537 of 1967 (unreported). It appears that in this judgment also the learned judge on facts came to the conclusion that there had been no delay on the part of the petitioner to seek the protection of the court in its writ jurisdiction. It is true that the learned judge on a discussion of two Bombay decisions, Madhaval Sindhoo v. V. R. Idurkar and P. C. Doshi v. 7th Income-tax Officer, Bombay, in which the decision of the Privy Council in Estate & Trust Agencies (1927) Ltd. v. Singapore Improvement Trust were referred to and also a decision of the Supreme Court in State of M. P. v. Bhailal Bhai were referred to, showed his leanings in favour of the argum ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cases, lapse of time and delay are most material. But, in every case, if an argument against relief, which otherwise would be just, is founded upon mere delay, that delay of course not amounting to a bar by any statute of limitations, the validity of that defence must be tried upon principles substantially equitable. Two circumstances, always important in such cases, are the length of the delay and the nature of the acts done during the interval, which might affect either party and cause a balance of justice or injustice in taking the one course or the other, so far as relates to the remedy. " The principle thus enunciated in the above decisions leaves me in little doubt that there is such negligence and laches on the part of the petitione ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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