2010 (4) TMI 431 - HC - Income Tax

Re-assessment - reopening of an assessment - Amendment with effect from Finance Act, 2009 by inserting an explanation - Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 provides that if the Assessing Officer has reason to believe that any income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for any assessment year, he may, subject to the provisions of Sections 148 to 153, assess or reassess such income "and also any other income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment and which comes to his notice subsequently in the course of the proceedings under this Section". The proviso deals with reopening of an assessment upon the expiry of a period of four years from the end of the relevant assessment year and does not fall for interpretation in this appeal. - Held that - upon the formation of a reason to believe that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for any assessment year, the Assessing Officer may assesss or reassess such income "and also" any other income chargeable to tax which comes to his notice subsequently during the proceedings as having escaped assessment. The word " and also" are used in a cumulative and conjunctive sense. To read these words as being in the alternative would be to rewrite the language used by Parliament.