RADHAKANT JAGANNATH PRASAD Vs. V K JOHRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution challenging the validity of notice dated April 2nd, 1957 issued in pursuance of Section 34 of the Income-tax Act and for reliefs preventing the Respondents from proceeding with re-assessment in pursuance of that notice.

(2.) THE main grounds on which the Petitioner has placed reliance are contained in sub-paragraphs (c), (d), (e) and (g) of paragraph 18 of the petition. The contentions of the Petitioner all converge into the argument that the Income-tax officer could not have reasonably and honestly believed that the income of the Petitioner for the relevant year had escaped assessment by reason of non-disclosure of material facts and should not have issued the notice. Under the circumstances the facts in this petition have to be approached so as to find the facts which were at the date of the notice present before the Income-tax Officer who issued the notice. The facts which were then present before the Income-tax Officer appear to me as follows :

(3.) THE Petitioner belonged to a family consisting of about 18 members at the relevant period. The genealogy of the family as appearing from the analysis of the list Ex. A to the petition is as follows: