TMI Blog1996 (3) TMI 119X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by statements showing computation of taxable income. It appears that though initially the Assessing Officer had issued to the petitioners notices under section 143(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short, "the Act"), as also a questionnaire to the petitioners in C. W. P. No. 496 of 1994, calling for information on certain points but ultimately the returns filed by them were accepted and intimations under section 143(1)(a)(i) of the Act were issued. Subsequently, the Assessing Officers issued fresh notices under section 143(2) of the Act calling upon the petitioners to appear and clarify certain points with a view to assess their income for the relevant assessment year, It is these notices which are under challenge in these petitions. Al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... id section will be deemed to be a notice of demand issued under section 156 for the amounts specified thereunder, which can be recovered from the assessee in accordance with the provisions of the Act. In our view, the stand of the petitioners is devoid of any merit. The provisions of section 143(1), material for our purpose, sub-sections (2) and (3) read as under : " 143. (1)(a) Where a return has been made under section 139, or in response to a notice under sub-section (1) of section 142,--- (i) if any tax or interest is found due on the basis of such return, after adjustment of any tax deducted at source, any advance tax paid and any amount paid otherwise by way of tax or interest, then, without prejudice to the provisions of sub-s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed therein, either to attend his office or to produce, or cause to be produced there, any evidence on which the assessee may rely in support of the return : Provided that no notice under this sub-section shall be served on the assessee after the expiry of twelve months from the end of the month in which the return is furnished. (3) On the day specified in the notice issued under sub-section (2), or as soon afterwards as may be, after hearing such evidence as the assessee may produce and such other evidence as the Assessing Officer may require on specified points, and after taking into account all relevant material which he has gathered, the Assessing Officer shall, by an order in writing, make an assessment of the total income or loss o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Assessing Officer has to necessarily issue a notice under sub-section (2) of section 143 of the Act. The prime reason for amendment of sub-clause (i) of section 143(1)(a) of the Act is that earlier under section 143(1)(a), as it stood prior to its substitution in the present form by the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987, with effect from April 1, 1989, the Assessing Officer had to pass an assessment order if he decided to accept the return but under the new section, the requirement of passing an assessment order in all cases, where returns of income are filed, has been dispensed with and in turn only an intimation is required to be sent if on the basis of the return, after prima facie adjustments, any amount is found due from the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rectly. We are also not impressed with the submission that an intimation has to be treated as a conclusion of the assessment process merely because the intimation under section 143(1)(a)(i) is by itself deemed to be a notice of demand issued under section 156 of the Act, after completion of assessment proceedings for a particular assessment year. From the scheme of the new assessment procedure it is obvious that the purpose for which the said fiction has been created in sub-section (1)(a)(i) of section 143 to treat the intimation as a notice of demand under section 156 is to make the machinery provision of recovery of tax applicable to the recovery of tax assessed in terms of the said sub-section and nothing more. By the fiction so create ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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