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TMI Blog1987 (6) TMI 17X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Income-tax Officer to furnish him with the grounds for the same. On that day, he also filed a return as required by the notice under section 148, but under protest. Nothing transpired until January 17, 1980, when the Income-tax Officer wrote to the appellant on the subject of the reopening of his assessment under section 147(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the said assessment year. He stated that after the assessment for that year had been made, the Income-tax Department came to know that loans shown by the appellant were not genuine; that one J. K. Thakkar had merely lent his name to show that a loan had been received from him, though he had not given it. The Department had, therefore, reason to believe that the amount of the loans ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s year, income chargeable to tax of Rs. 50,000 has escaped assessment. Issue notice u/s. 148. (Sd.) .................. ITO." Along with the letter dated February 23, 1980, the Income-tax Officer enclosed copies of letters dated February 7, 1975, and April 20, 1974, which were referred in the grounds. On March 4, 1980, the appellant filed a writ petition impugning the notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the notices under sections 143(2) and 142(1) of the said Act and the summons under section 131. The writ petition was heard and disposed of by the learned single judge on December 22, 1983. The learned judge dismissed the writ petition in so far as it concerned the notice under section 148 on the ground of delay. He quas ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or failure on the part of an assessee to make a return under section 139 for any assessment year to the Income-tax Officer or to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment for that year, income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for that year, or (b) notwithstanding that there has been no omission or failure as mentioned in clause (a) on the part of the assessee, the Income-tax Officer has in consequence of information in his possession reason to believe that 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 or recompute the loss or the depreciation allowance, as the case may be, for the asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... which the Income-tax Officer invoked, is not applicable. There is, in our mind, no doubt that the letters dated February 7, 1975, and April 20, 1974, furnished definite information to the Income-tax Officer. This was not a case of " wholly vague, indefinite, far-fetched and remote " information. The information could not but have led to the reasonable belief that income chargeable to tax in the appellant's hands had escaped assessment. Our attention was drawn by Mr. Rahimtoola, learned counsel for the appellant, to the judgment of the Allahabad High Court in Raghtibar Dayal Ram Kishan v. CIT [1967] 63 ITR 572. The judgment was delivered on a reference. The question that was answered read thus: "Where an Income-tax Officer assesses the inc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing down of the notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. We, therefore, decline to issue that writ. Mr. Jetly, learned counsel for the Revenue, now draws our attention to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in Ganga Saran and Sons (HUF) v. ITO[1981] 130 ITR 212. A notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, was issued to an assessee after his assessment was sought to be reopened by invoking the provisions of clause (a) of section 147 of the said Act. The assessee challenged the notice by filing a writ petition. The court came to the conclusion that the provisions of clause (a) of section 147 were not attracted. It then considered the question as to whether a notice issued under clause (a) of sect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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