BISHESHWAR LAL Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is directed against penalty proceedings under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). There was a firm, Rameshwar Lal Bisheshwar Lal, consisting of two partners, Bisheshwar Lal and Rameshwar Lal, who were brothers. The firm was assessed to income-tax for four assessment years 1944-45, 1945-46, 1946-47 and 1948-49. The assessee-firm successively appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and the Appellate Tribunal. Both these appellate authorities gave some relief to the assessee for the four assessment years. Between October 5, 1949, and August 10, 1961, the Income-tax Officer, Goiida, issued a series of notices to the firm calling upon it to show cause why penalty should not be imposed on the assessee-firm under Section 28(1)(c) of the Act on the ground that the firm concealed its income relevant to the four assessment years. The firm sent several replies to the effect that there was no concealment of income on the part of the firm. Ultimately, on April 19, 1963, Bisheswar Lal filed in this court the present writ petition challenging the penalty proceedings. The petitioner has prayed that the penalty proceedings be quashed.

(2.) IT has been stated in paragraph I of the petition that the firm, Rameshwar Lal Bisheshwar Lal, was dissolved as far back as the year 1948. This position was accepted in the counter-affidavit filed by the Income-tax Officer, Gonda.

(3.) IN Ram Kishan Baldeo Prasad v. Commissioner of INcome-tax, 1967 65 ITR 491, the question referred to this court was :