LAWS(PAT)-1979-10-13

ISHWAR PRASAD CHHAUCHHARIA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

Decided On October 24, 1979
ISHWAR PRASAD CHHAUCHHARIA Appellant
V/S
STATE OF BIHAR Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant has been convicted under Sections 467 and 193 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and seven years, respectively. THE sentences have been ordered to run concurrently. He has also been convicted under Sections 471/467 of the Indian Penal Code, but no separate sentence has been awarded thereunder.

(2.) THE appellant, who is said to be a partner in the firm of Mukund Ram Ram Kumar of Deoghar, filed a return of the firm on March 3, 1965, for the assessment year 1964-65, on the basis of which the provisional assessment under Section 141 of the I.T. Act, 1961, was made. THE total income shown therein was Rs. 44,457. Since the return was filed after the due date, the assessee-firm was liable for a penalty under Section 271(1)(a) of the I.T. Act. Regular assessment was completed on March 31, 1969, and a demand notice was issued. THE prosecution further alleged that the appellant realising his mistake and in order to escape the liability of a penalty got the return, which was filed by him on March 3, 1965, surreptitiously removed from the file some time in between March 3, 1965, and March 31, 1969, and got another return, purported to have been signed by him on June 30, 1964, substituted in place of the return filed on March 3, 1965. THE fraudulent nature of this transaction is manifest from the fact alleged by the prosecution that the form on which the subsequent return was filed was not in existence prior to July 1, 1964, which is the date mentioned in that form as the date of its printing. THEse facts were discovered when an inspection was made of the records of the office of the Commissioner of Income-tax, Bihar. A complaint was thereafter filed on March 30, 1971, by the ITO, Deoghar (P.W. 4). After commitment and trial, the appellant has been punished and sentenced as indicated above.

(3.) IN the result, the appeal is allowed and the conviction and the sentence imposed upon the appellant are set aside. He is acquitted and discharged from his bail-bond.