TMI Blog1994 (1) TMI 81X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the enormous delay in filing the proceedings, the applicants should be discharged. The facts which are relevant to dispose of this petition can be summarised thus : The applicants were supposed to submit income-tax returns in relation to the assessment year 1979-80 on or before July 31, 1979. However, the said returns were actually submitted by the applicants only on September 14, 1981. It is the applicants' case that criminal proceedings were lodged by the Income-tax Department on account of their delay in filing the returns under section 139(1) of the Act only on March 24, 1988. In the meantime, the First Income-tax Officer by order dated February 4, 1984, imposed on the applicants penalty provided under section 271(1)(a) of the Act to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... B. D'Costa, learned counsel appearing for the applicants, has advanced three submissions. It was, firstly, urged by learned counsel that under article 21 of the Constitution of India the applicants had a right to a speedy trial and hence the prosecution lodged by the Department, apparently after ten years, was not justified. Learned counsel contended that since the applicants were required to submit their returns on July 31, 1979, and failed to do so because the returns were submitted only on September 14, 1981, technically the offence was deemed to have been committed by them on July 31, 1979, therefore, the proceedings having been instituted by the Department only on March 24, 1988, they have been thus instituted after a period of almost ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he said provision gives to the Commissioner several options before lodging such proceedings, one of them being the option to compound any offence for which the prosecution is to be instituted. Reliance was placed by learned counsel on the judgment of the Rajasthan High Court in the case of Shree Singhvi Brothers v. Union of India [1991] 187 ITR 219, in which it has been laid down that the principles of natural justice must be read into the unoccupied interstices of the statute unless there is a clear mandate to the contrary. Thus, it is amply clear that every process of the quasi-judicial Tribunals must inform itself of the principles of natural justice. In case of concealment of any income, the Department has authority to add the concealed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... them with a show-cause notice under section 274 of the Act. At that time the conduct of the applicants was such that it perfectly justified the conclusion arrived at by the Commissioner that the failure on the part of the applicants to file their returns in time was not to be condoned or explained. After the order imposing penalty was passed, the applicants filed two appeals in which they had placed all the facts before the Tribunal and which were ultimately rejected by the competent authorities. All these facts which were pleaded by the applicants before the Tribunal were subsequently placed before the Commissioner, who had, therefore, an occasion to go through them and to be satisfied that the same were enough to justify the delay. The C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ns open to the Commissioner before launching the prosecution, it seems to be only in the fitness of things that the Commissioner should have heard the applicants before he chose to institute such proceedings in order to enable the applicants to show cause and satisfy him as to why the other options available should not have been preferred instead of filing criminal proceedings. In the result this petition is bound to succeed and is hereby allowed. The proceedings instituted by the Department before the learned J. M. F. C. are hereby quashed and set aside. It is, however, made clear that this will not prevent the Commissioner to institute fresh proceedings against the applicants, if he is so advised, but only after giving them an opportuni ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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