TMI Blog1984 (6) TMI 22X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d of the said statement, three notes were appended, one of which was to the effect that the assessees had purchased automatic printing machinery in the year of account corresponding to the assessment year in question, and that it worked the said machinery for some time in the said period and the petitioner-firm had claimed development rebate, depreciation, extra shift allowance on the cost of the said machinery. It appears that the petitioner had also furnished along with the profit and loss account which it had filed for the accounting year corresponding to the assessment year, the particulars of the interest paid by the petitioner-firm to different creditors which, inter alia, included an amount of Rs. 8,057 which the petitioner claims to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ite of the objection to his jurisdiction, fixed an appointment on January 22, 1980, and intimated the assessee accordingly by his letter of January 11, 1980. It appears that the assessee, therefore, before appearing in person addressed a letter on January 21, 1980, that is, a day immediately prior to the date of the appointment that the ITO had informed his representative in the earlier hearing that the reopening was a sequel to some audit objection in that behalf and the assessee, therefore, invited the attention of the ITO to the decision of the Supreme Court in Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society v. CIT [1979] 119 ITR 996, where the Supreme Court ruled that an audit objection did not constitute information and, therefore, the action of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion or authority to initiate reassessment proceedings under s. 147(b). In Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society's case [1979] 119 ITR 996, the Supreme Court held that the opinion of an internal audit party of the Income-tax Department on a point of law cannot be regarded as " information " within the meaning of s. 147(b) of the I.T. Act, 1961, for the purpose of reopening an assessment, since a statement by a person or body not competent to create or define the law cannot be regarded as law, and the suggested integration of enacted legislation and the elaboration of legal principles in text books and journals do not enjoy the status of law and they are merely opinions. The Supreme Court emphasised that if the distinction between the source ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the effect of a subsequent Supreme Court decision cannot be equated with retrospective effect being given to a statute. This was not the question before the ITO in so far as he had initiated reassessment proceedings on the basis of the information received in the nature of an audit note, which has been held by the subsequent Supreme Court decision in Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society's case [1979] 119 ITR 996, to be no information at all on a point of law. In other words, the very basis on which the initiation of reassessment proceedings rested disappeared. In that view of the matter, we are of the opinion that the ITO had no jurisdiction or authority or power to reassess the proceeding since with all the materials before him which w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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