DHAN RAJ Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The facts are these. For the assessment years 1970-71 to 1973-74 the petitioner made an application on August 28, 1974, under Section 271(1)(a) of the I.T. Act (hereafter "the Act"), to the Commissioner, Kanpur. The petitioner disclosed his income for these years in that petition and made a prayer that penalty as imposable under Section 271(1)(a) and Section 273(b) and interest chargeable under Section 139 and Section 217 of the Act may be waived or reduced. After that disclosure application, the ITO issued notices under Section 148 of the Act and pursuant thereto the assessee filed returns. The ITO made the assessments for these years on January 31, 1975. The details of income returned and assessed were as under : <FRM>JUDGEMENT_652_ITR140_1983Html1.htm</FRM>

(2.) IT may be noted that the difference between the income returned and the income assessed was due to minor adjustments and some add-backs.

(3.) THERE is no dispute in regard to facts. As noted above, the disclosure petition was in respect of four assessment years, viz., 1970-71 to 1973-74. The Commissioner has accepted the petitioner's contention that the disclosure was made voluntarily and in good faith in respect of these assessment years. Relief has not been allowed for the assessment years 1970-71 and 1971-72, for the reason that such disclosure can be made only through a valid return and since the returns for these years were filed beyond the time-limit prescribed under Sub-sections (1), (2) and (4) of Section 139 of the Act they were invalid returns. We find that this view is manifestly erroneous in law. Section 273A, in so far as it is relevant for the purposes of this case, is as under :