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TMI Blog1976 (12) TMI 18X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... facts of these two cases briefly are that two notices under section 148 of the Act for the aforesaid two assessment years were issued to the petitioner requiring him to submit return in the prescribed form of his income for the two assessment years. The petitioner did not respond to either of the two notices. Thereafter, two other notices dated February 12, 1969, under section 142(1) of the Act were issued to the petitioner for production of accounts for the assessment years from 1964-65 to 1967-68. By letter dated February 22, 1969, the petitioner informed the Income-tax Officer that amongst other things he was a partner of M/s. Traders and Builders Corporation, Dibrugarh, and he had no other source of income and that an assessment proceeding of the said firm was pending at the relevant time but the firm had in the meantime been dissolved. Thereafter, the petitioner submitted another letter to the Income-tax Officer showing his capital and loan account in the defunct firm under the name and style of M/s. Traders and Builders Corporation", Dibrugarh. In the said letter the petitioner stated that he received salary of Rs. 5,000 from the State Bank of India, Jorhat Branch, from 1958 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is bad in law inasmuch as the department failed to discharge the burden that lies on it in such matters; and (iii) the Commissioner in his order accepted some portion of the explanation given by the assessee as genuine and that being so, he had no jurisdiction to reject the other portion. Regarding the first point, Mr. Baruah's submission is that before issuing the notice under section 148 of the Act the Income-tax Officer did not comply with sub-section (2) of section 148 nor was there any compliance with clause (a) of section 147 of the Act. Sub-section (2) of section 148 of the Act reads as follows: "The Income-tax Officer shall, before issuing any notice under this section, record his reasons for doing so." Mr. Baruah's contention is that in the notices purported to be issued under section 148 of the Act, no reasons are recorded and so the legal presumption should be that there are no reasons recorded and, therefore, the Income-tax Officer had no jurisdiction to issue the notices under section 148 in the instant cases. We have gone through the two notices. The reasons are not stated therein. It is not necessary that reasons should be stated in the notice itself, if, i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the provisions of sections 148 to 153, assess or reassess such income or recompute the loss or the depreciation allowance, as the case may be, for the assessment year concerned (hereafter in sections 148 to 153 referred to as the relevant assessment year ........" From the materials quoted above from the record, we find that the present petitioner has been a partner of M/s. A. Sarmah and this firm was started some time in 1963 and while assessment of the firm for the assessment year 1967-68 was made it was found that the two partners had assessable income and neither of these two partners filed any return for any year. That being so, it cannot but be held that the Income-tax Officer from these materials had reasons to believe that by reason of omission or failure on the part of the assessee to make a return under section 139 for the assessment years from 1964-65 onwards, income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment for those years. From the grounds recorded as found in the record, we are satisfied that the Income-tax Officer had reasons as contemplated under section 147(a) of the Act while issuing the notices under section 148 of the Act. Mr. Baruah, the learned counsel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o partners, that the firm had an income to the tune of Rs. 26,050 and the petitioner was entitled to have half of the same and this firm existed from 1963 onwards. That being the position, it was quite reasonable on the part of the Income-tax Officer to form the belief that this firm must have some income in which the assessee in question must have had a share for which he was liable to submit the return but the assessee did not file any return in any of the assessment years including the assessment years under consideration. That being so, we are clearly of the opinion that there were good grounds on the part of the Income-tax Officer to form the belief that income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment for the two assessment years by reason of the omission or failure on the part of the assessee to make a return under section 139 of the Act for the said assessment years. We, therefore, find that in issuing the notices under section 148 of the Act there was compliance with sub-section (2) of section 148 of the Act as well as there was compliance of clause (a) of section 147 of the Act and that the two notices issued under section 148 were valid in law. The proceedings initiate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... upon by the Commissioner of Income-tax for reasons stated in his order. That being so, it cannot be said that the department had any further burden to prove that this was an income of the assessee because the assessee himself stated that he got this sum of Rs. 29,041.08 from certain sources which he failed to establish. The question is whether under such circumstances these amounts may be treated as income. It is found that the sum of Rs. 29,041.08 was invested by the assessee in the firm, M/s. Traders and Builders Corporation, Dibrugarh, wherein he was a partner at the relevant time. So, there cannot be denying of the fact that this sum was invested by the assessee to M/s. Traders and Builders Corporation, Dibrugarh. The assessee sought to explain the sources of this amount wherein he failed according to the taxing authorities as his explanations were not acceptable and the reasons given by the taxing authorities do not appear to be unreasonable or perverse as submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner. That being so, the present case will attract the provisions of section 69 of the Act, which reads as follows: "69. Unexplained investments.-Where in the financial y ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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