SANKARA REDDIAR P Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question referred is:

(2.) Rs. 8730/- is the income said to have been made by the assessee during the accounting period relating to the assessment year 1959-60 on the basis of a contract for the supply of paper which he entered into with the State Government. The profit and loss statement prepared by the assessee for that year showed this income and the assessee bad been assessed on that income for the year 1959-60. When he filed a return for the assessment year 1960-61 though his accounts bad been drawn up showing the entire transactions' even those relating to the accounting year pertaining to the assessment year

(3.) The question referred to us it is said is based on the supposed principle that the department ought not to have been permitted to go back on what it once said. We do not think that there is any such principle. If a bona fide mistake had been committed it is open to the department to rectify that mistake. It cannot be said that there was any estoppel in regard to this matter. The point was taken in an appeal statutorily provided. Even a pleading can be allowed to be amended in proceedings before a court and a stand contradictory to that which bad been taken earlier can be permitted to be taken. This is so especially in cases where the original, stand was on the basis of a bona fide mistake. We are not satisfied that there has been any error committed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in accepting the plea of the department that the sum of Rs. 8730/- has been wrongly allowed to be deducted because the earlier report was based on a mistake. We answer the question referred to us in the affirmative, that is, against the assessee and in favour of the department. We direct the parties to bear their respective costs.