RANI RAJENDRA KUMARI BA Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition the validity of a notice dated 29th March, 1976, issued under Section 148 read with Section 147 of the I.T. Act for the assessment year 1967-68 is involved. It appears that the petitioner had disclosed income from royalty and Garraiya Bazar besides the share income for the assessment years 1964-65 to 1968-69. For each one of these years, the ITO added the income of the petitioner from these two sources' in the total income of the petitioner's husband under Section 64 of the I.T. Act, 1961. The petitioner's husband went up in appeals and succeeded. The AAC held that the income from the aforesaid two sources arose to the present petitioner and could not be clubbed with the total income of the husband. The appeals were allowed. The ITO went up in appeal to the Tribunal. The findings were confirmed and the Tribunal held that the income arising to the assessee's wife from these two sources cannot be computed in the total income of the assessee under Section 64(iii) of the I.T. Act, 1961, for the assessment years under appeal. The orders under appeal were five, viz., for the assessment years 1964-65 to 1968-69. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on 25th February, 1972. IN consequence, the impugned notice was issued by the ITO on 29th" March, 1976, for the assessment year 1967-68 only.

(2.) THE petitioner, who is the wife, challenges the validity of the notice on a variety of grounds. We need not deal with them because in our opinion one of the grounds is enough for the disposal of the writ petition and the ground that appeals: to us is that, contrary to the statutory provisions, the present petitioner was not given an opportunity of being heard before the Tribunal passed the order excluding the income from the aforesaid two sources from the total income of the husband and holding it to be the income of the wife.

(3.) IN the result, the writ petition succeeds and is allowed. The impugned notice for the assessment year 1967-68 is quashed.