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TMI Blog1964 (3) TMI 11X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The date of the notice fell within 8 years from the end of the relevant assessment year, i.e., March 31, 1948, but it was served beyond 8 years from that date and, therefore, was clearly out of time under the provisions of the said section. In Civil Appeal No. 143 of 1963, for the assessment year 1947-48 the appellant was assessed on a total income of Rs. 28,993 on December 30, 1948, by the Income-tax Officer and the tax thereon amounting to Rs. 4,747-13-0 was deposited on behalf of the appellant in the Reserve Bank of India. On April 2, 1956, the appellant was served with a notice dated March 19, 1956, by the Income-tax Officer purporting to be under section 34 of the Act on the ground of escaped assessment. The date of the notice fell within 8 years from the end of the relevant assessment year, i.e., March 31, 1956 ; but it was served beyond 8 years from that date and was, therefore, clearly out of time under the provisions of the said section. The appellants in the two appeals filed two petitions in the High Court of Calcutta under article 226 of the Constitution for quashing the said notices and for other appropriate reliefs. On March 20, 1957, Sinha J. of that court issu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the notice were a notice issued under that sub-section . . . Provided that where a notice under sub-section (1) has been issued within the time therein limited, the assessment or reassessment to be made in pursuance of such notice may be made before the expiry of one year from the date of the service of the notice even if such period exceeds the period of eight years or four years, as the case may be." Section 4 of the Amending Act (1 of 1959) : " No notice issued under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 34 of the principal Act at any time before the commencement of this Act and no assessment, reassessment or settlement made or other proceedings taken in consequence of such notice shall be called in question in any court, tribunal or other authority merely on the ground that at the time the notice was issued or at the time the assessment or reassessment was made, the time within which such notice should have been issued or the assessment or reassessment should have been made under that section as in force before its amendment by clause (a) of section 18 of the Finance Act, 1956 (18 of 1956), had expired." Section 34(1)(a) of the Act empowered the Income-tax Officer t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rovision not creating a charge for the tax but laying down the machinery for its calculation or procedure for its collection. The provisions in a taxing statute dealing with machinery for assessment have to be construed by the ordinary rules of construction, that is to say, in accordance with the clear intention of the legislature, which is to make a charge levied effective." In that case, the court was called upon to construe the provisions of section 18A of the Income-tax Act, 1922, which laid down the machinery for assessing the amount of interest, and, therefore, this court did not apply the stringent rule of construction. Apart from the emphasis on the letter of the law, the fundamental rule of construction of a taxing statute is not different from that of any other statute and that rule is stated by Lord Russell of Killowen C.J. in Attorney-General v. Carlton Bank, thus : "The duty of the court is ... to give effect to the intention of the legislature, as that intention is to be gathered from the language employed having regard to the context in connection with which it is employed." To the present case the general rule of construction of fiscal Acts would apply, and no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e-limit for sending a notice, for, under section 34(1)(a) of the Act, a notice could be served only within 8 years from the relevant assessment year. It does not provide any period for sending of the notice. Obviously, therefore, the expression " issued " is not used in the narrow sense of " sent ". Further, the said expression has received, before the amendment, a clear judicial interpretation, Under section 34(1)(a) of the Act the Income-tax Officer may in cases falling under clause (a) at any time within 8 years serve on the assessee a notice. The proviso to that section says that where the notice under section 34(1)(a) is within time therein limited, the assessment or reassessment to be made in pursuance of such notice may be made before the expiry of one year from the date of the service of the notice even if such period exceeds the period of 8 years or 4 years, as the case may be. In Commissioner of Income-tax v. D. V. Ghurye, it was argued that a notice sent before 8 years, though served beyond 8 years, was in compliance with the section ; and in support of that argument the expression " issued " in the proviso was relied upon to limit the meaning of the word " served " in t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r requires any document to be served by post, whether the expression ' serve ' or either of the expressions, ' give ' or ' send ', or any other expression is used, then, unless a different intention appears, the service shall be deemed to be effected by properly addressing, prepaying and posting by registered post, a letter containing the document, and unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter. would be delivered in the ordinary course of post." It would be seen from this provision that Parliament used the words serve ", " give " and " send " as interchangeable words. So too, in sections 553, 554 and 555 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951, the two expressions " issued to " or " served upon " are used as equivalent expressions. In the legislative practice of our country the said two expressions are sometimes used to convey the same idea. In other words, the expression " issued " is used in a limited as well as in a wider sense. We must, therefore, give the expression " issued " in section 4 of the Amending Act that meaning which carries out the intention of the legislature in preference to that which defeats it. By doing so we will not b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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