9911796707
TMI Blog1938 (3) TMI 24X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in view of the fact that the assessment for the next year was based on the same material in the account books which were produced before the Income Tax Officer, the Income Tax Officer and the Assistant Commissioner were legally competent to assess to petitioner under sub-section (4) of Section 23. The facts giving rise to the two questions propounded above are as follows. The assessee is a Hindu undivided family trading in hardware at Ludhiana and in the neighbouring States. He submitted the usual return for 1932-33 on which he was duly assessed on 2nd November 1932. In the course of assessment proceeding for the year 1933-34 it transpired that the assessees income for 1932-33 had escaped assessment and that it had further been assess ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in as much as he was in a position to make the assessment on information furnished by the account books which were actually produced and that consequently it could not be said that there was any non-compliance with the terms of the notice issued under sub-section (4) of Section 22. In support of his contention he has relied on 5 I.T.C. 142; but neither does the contention raised by the assessee appear to us to be sound nor does not authority relied on by him advance his case any further. Sub-section (4) of Sec. 22 empowers the Income Tax Officer to serve on any person contemplated by the sub-section a notice requiring him to produce such accounts or documents as the Income Tax Officer may require. Sub-section (4) of Section 23 enacts th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ment on the actual entire in the books produced by the assessees and had come to the conclusion that there was no extra income on which the assessee should have been assessed or that such income could have been produced. Here, however, the circumstances are quite different and the Income Tax Officer has repeatedly observed that the profits have been concealed and that the non-production of some of the books required by him is deliberate. That case, therefore, is distinguishable on the grounds stated above. It may be that, as remarked by the learned Judges in that case, the word, require really means require as a piece of relevant evidence and that it does not mean that the Income Tax Officer should ask for documents or account books whic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the only relevant accounts which were necessary for his purpose and that he was not justified in asking for any other account books. The withholding of some of the account books which the assessee in this case had been called upon to produce amounted, therefore, to a non-compliance with the terms of the notice issued under sub-section (4) of Section 22 and entailed all the penalties laid down in sub-section (4) of Section 23. In support of this conclusion reference may be made to 3 I.T.C. 297. The second question can be disposed of on the short ground that what happens in a subsequent year cannot be taken to be a criterion for what should have happened in the previous year, and that if an order made by the Income Tax Officer is not open ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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