COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX Vs. JAGJIT KAUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has referred the following question of law far out opinion :

(2.) The assessment years involved are 1961-62, 1962-63, 1963-64 and 19.64-65. The assessments in all these years were framed for the first time under Section 147(a) read, with Section 143(3), The assessee had not been assessed prior to the assessment year 1961-62 and had neither filed her estimate of total income for any of those four years, nor paid advance tax as required by Section 213(3), She did not appear before the ITO nor did she file any explanation in respect of the notice served on her to show cause as to why penalty should not be levied under Section 273(b). The ITO levied penalty of Rs. 1,000 each on the assessee under Section 273(b) of the Act for each of the four years. The assessee appealed. The AAC, following the decision of of the Kerala Court in the case of Gates Foam & Rubber Co. v. CIT [1973] 90 ITR 422, held that as the assessments were framed under Section 147(a), which were not regular assessments, the provisions of Section 273(b) were not attracted, and no penalty could be levied. The revenue took up the matter in appeal before the Tribunal. The Tribunal reaffirmed the view of the AAC.

(3.) The only question in this reference is as to whether Section 273(b) applies to cases of assessments under Section 147(a) read with Section 143(3). The relevant part of Section 273(b) is as under :