S HARDIP SINGH SANDHU Vs. TAX RECOVERY OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two writ petitions (CWP Nos. 553 of 1980 and 556 of 1979) involve common questions of facts and law and are, therefore, proposed to be decided by a common judgment.

(2.) For the purposes of facts, wherever reference becomes necessary, the same would be from CWP No. 553 of 1980. The two petitioners in the two writ petitions, Hardip Singh and Basant Singh, are father and son, respectively, and they were directors of Sandhu Bus Service (Pvt.) Ltd. By virtue of the provisions of Section 179 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short "the Act"), the liability of the company for the assessment years 1955-56 to 1962-63 was fastened upon them by the Income-tax Officer'. They challenged the order of the Income-tax Officer in this court. The High Court sustained the order of the Income-tax Officer and the judgment of this court was then challenged in the Supreme Court. Their Lordships of the Supreme Court sustained the judgment of this court, vide judgment in S. Hardip Singh v. ITO [1979] 118 ITR 57. The Income-tax Officer thereafter issued recovery certificate in respect of the amount due. The petitioners have challenged the said recovery certificate on two grounds : (i) that no recovery certificate under Section 222 of the Income-tax Act could be issued unless a demand notice under Section 156 of the Act has been served upon the petitioners, and (ii) that only the tax liability of the assessee-company for the assessment year 1962-63 amounting to Rs. 12,731 could be recovered from the petitioners because the provision of Section 179 of the Act was prospective in character and not retrospective.

(3.) So far as the second contention is concerned, it is too late in the day to raise it because so far as the quantum of the tax liability and the period are concerned, they stand determined between the parties by the apex court itself in S. Hardip Singh's case [1979] 118 ITR 57. The Income-tax Officer in that case had held the petitioners liable for all the aforesaid assessment years. This order had been sustained right up to the Supreme Court, as already observed.