TMI Blog1979 (11) TMI 7X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sment year 1963-64, the assessee-firm filed a return showing an income of Rs. 14,840. The assessee claimed that he did file a return for the relevant year, but according to the I.T. authorities, the said return was filed before some ITO who had no jurisdiction to proceed with the assessment, and, consequently, a notice was issued by the ITO under s. 139(2) of the I.T. Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") for filing the return. According to the assessee, this notice was not served, but according to the Department the notice was duly served. Consequently, the ITO, on November 28, 1968, passed an order computing the income of the firm at Rs. 20,000 and proceeded to make an ex parte assessment. It has been averred in the petition th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... notice or requisition may be served on the person therein named either by post or as if it were a summons issued by a court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. In the present case, admittedly, there is no averment that the notice was served on the assessee through post. We have, therefore, to revert to the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure. A reading of the provisions of 0. 5, rr. 9, 12 and 20 of the Code of Civil Procedure makes it amply clear that ordinarily the service has to be effected on the person concerned personally, but where the authority concerned is satisfied that there is reason to believe that the person concerned is keeping out of the way for the purpose of avoiding service or that for any other reason the summ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sment order and the demand notice on the assessee cannot be minimised as it is from the date of service that the limitation for filing an appeal and the right of the assessee to file an appeal accrues. The right of appeal is a valuable right and thus in that background the question whether a particular assessee has been served in accordance with law assumes considerable importance. In such matters, the courts usually insist that the procedure, as postulated by law, should be meticulously followed so that no injustice is done to a person whose right of appeal will come into play only if he has been served in accordance with law. In the present case, an ex parte assessment order was passed and obviously the assessee had no knowledge of the pa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
