RAJA YUVRAJ DUTTA SINGH Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a special appeal directed against an order of our brother Manchanda dismissing a petition for certiorari.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the appellant complains that the grounds upon which the instant petition was dismissed are not sustainable. He points out that the petition was filed three days after receipt of the notice of demand for the assessment year 1949-50 and that the existence of an alternative remedy could be no bar when the principal allegation upon which the petition was founded was that the Income-tax Officer had acted mala fide in assessing the petitioner upon the sum of Rs. 2 lakhs for the assessment year 1949-50, in order to circumvent the order of this court in the earlier writ petition restraining him from making an assessment order for the assessment year 1950-51 in which the proposed assessment of the sum of Rs. 2 lakhs was challenged. We have heard learned counsel at length, and, in our judgment, there is not sufficient material before us to justify the finding that the Income-tax Officer acted mala fide. The affidavit accompanying the petition does not clearly allege mala fides against the Income-tax Officer. It merely states, by paragraph 13 :

(3.) WE are, therefore, of the view that there is no force in this appeal which is accordingly dismissed with costs.