TMI Blog1977 (8) TMI 14X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat in the course of proceedings for assessment to income-tax, for the relevant assessment year, the ITO found on examination of the accounts of the assessee that it had not disclosed the closing stock. After further examination of the accounts, the ITO found that the had not accounted for the sale of four bales of cloth. The assessee asked for and was given time to explain the discrepancy. The assessee thereupon filed a revised return including therein the sale price of four bales which came to Rs. 4,787. The ITO made the assessment including within the total income the aforesaid amount of Rs. 4,787 and he also simultaneously initiated penalty proceedings. Since, however, the minimum imposable penalty was more than Rs, 1,000, he referred t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... course of which the proceedings for imposition of penalty had been commenced in the instant case, and that under the amended provision no order imposing penalty could be passed after the expiration of two years from the end of the financial year in which the proceedings, in the course of which action for imposition of penalty had been initiated, were completed. This amended provision, according to the Tribunal, became applicable to the pending proceedings in the facts and circumstances of the present case, and since the order imposing penalty was passed before the expiration of two years from the end of the financial year 1970-71, it could not be said that the said order was without power, authority or jurisdiction. The Tribunal, however, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cerned to pending proceedings unless a vested right has accrued to any party by reason of the old period of limitation having expired. In the case before the Division Bench, on the date on which the Amend. Act came into force, namely, April 1, 1971, even under the old unamended section the time for passing the order of penalty had not expired and it was, therefore, found that by the aforesaid well recognised principle of interpretation the period of limitation stood enhanced or enlarged up to March 31, 1972. The Division Bench made the following pertinent observations in this context (p. 756) : " At least so far as the question of limitation is concerned, it is obvious that the old section cannot apply after the Amendment Act since the en ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ying the ratio of the Division Bench decision in Royal Motor, Car Co.'s case [1977] 107 ITR 753 (Guj), that the Tribunal rightly treated the order of penalty as having been passed within the prescribed time limit. As regards the second aspect of the matter also the decision in Royal Motor Car Co.'s case [1977] 107 ITR 753 (Guj) covers the ground. It was observed in the said decision that every litigant had a vested right in the procedural law so far as substance is concerned and that if the substantive question of jurisdiction is to be affected by a new amendment the legislature must say so either in express terms or by necessary implication. Reliance was placed upon the decision of the Privy Council in Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd. v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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