COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. NARAIN SINGH DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Tribunal, Allahabad Bench, Allahabad has referred the following question to this Court for its opinion by its order dt. 10th July, 1979.

(2.) COUNSEL for the Department in this connection has submitted that some other High Courts have not agreed with the view taken by this Court in the case of Om Sons. Dehradun. He, however, candidly conceded that so far as this Court is concerned the decision in the case of Om Sons, Dehradun still holds good and has indeed been followed thereafter in a number of other cases.

(3.) IN order to indicate that this case is covered by the decision in the case of Om Sons (supra) it is necessary to point out that assessment in this case was made on 17th March, 1975. Thereafter the ITO initiated penalty proceedings and referred the matter to the IAC under S. 274(2) of the Act for proper action and the IAC in his turn issued a show cause notice. The order of imposing penalty was passed on 22nd Nov., 1976 by the IAC. All this was done after the amendment of S. 271(2) of the IT Act w.e.f. 1st April, 1971 by the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976. The effect of this amendment was that the IAC had on the relevant date no jurisdiction to pass any order of the penalty.