2003 (5) TMI 4 - SC - Income Tax

Whether the respondents are entitled to the refund of income-tax paid by them by way of advance tax and self-assessment tax in the event of the assessment framed being nullified by the Tribunal on the ground of jurisdiction and there being no possibility of framing a fresh assessment - HC is not justified in holding that the refund must be limited to the income-tax paid pursuant to the order of assessment, other than income-tax paid by way of advance tax and self-assessment tax.

An assessee will not be placed in a more disadvantageous position than what he would have been, had an assessment been made in accordance with law.

Even under the unamended section 240 of the Act, the assessee was only entitled to the refund of tax paid in excess of the tax chargeable on the total income returned by the assessee.