TMI Blog1996 (8) TMI 81X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the petitioner were searched under section 132(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter "the Act"). In the course of search a large number of incriminating books of account including duplicate sets of books were seized by the officers of the Department. On a scrutiny of the books of account seized, it was detected that the accused had income from other sources and he had not disclosed his true income to the Department and had been evading payment of taxes. As there was concealment of substantial income for the assessment year 1983-84 a notice under section 139(2) of the Act was issued against the accused. The due date for filing the return of income was June 30, 1983. The accused filed the return of income on December 17, 1985, i.e., ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... criminal prosecution of the petitioner ought not to be allowed to continue even if he had committed the alleged offence. Mr. Jain, however, confined his argument mainly to the ground that as per the provision of sub-section (2) of section 139 of the Act, as it stood before its amendment with effect from April 1, 1989, the Assessing Officer was required to issue a notice to the petitioner and serve the same upon him before the end of the relevant assessment year. He pointed out that the petitioner-assessee was required to file his return of income by June 30, 1983, and the Assessing Officer within the meaning of section 139(2) of the Act could have issued the notice to him and served the same on him under the law by the end of the relevant a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ituted an offence under section 276CC of the Act for which the petitioner was being prosecuted and it was for the Department to allege that the notice was both issued and served on the petitioner-assessee before the end of the assessment year. It was pointed out that the complaint petition (annexure "I"), contained no such averment. The important ingredient that the notice had to be served on the assessee before the end of the said assessment year was thus missing and the learned Special Court could not have taken cognizance of the offence. Learned counsel appearing for the Revenue argued that the complaint petition should be read as a whole and it disclosed the necessary allegations as to how the petitioner had sought to conceal other so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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