Patna High Court
Commissioner Of Income Tax vs Smt. Bhagwant Kaur. on 19 March, 1987
Equivalent citations: (1987)63CTR(PAT)326
JUDGMENT
By the Court - This is a reference under s. 256(2) of the IT Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Act). It relates to asst. yr. 1973-74. The assessee is a lady and was assessed in terms of a scheme formulated by the CBDT in 1972. The Scheme specifically excluded minors and ladies. Yet, the Income-tax Officer (hereinafter called the ITO) under some misapprehension accepted the assessees return and assessed her in terms of the Scheme without any enquiry in terms of s. 143(1) of the Act. Later, the CIT, Bihar being of the view that the order of assessment by the ITO was erroneous and was prejudicial to be Revenue revised the assessment by setting aside the order of the ITO under s. 263(1) of the Act. The assessee being aggrieved by the order of the Commissioner ordering reassessment in terms of s. 143 of the Act filed an appeal before the ITAT. The Tribunal allowed it and set aside the order of the Commissioner. The Tribunal held that the Scheme applied to ladies and minors as well. It also held that proper enquiry had been made. The Tribunal further held that the order of the Commissioner was based on surmises and conjectures inasmuch as no prejudice had been shown to the Revenue. The Revenue being aggrieved by the order of the Tribunal applied for a reference to this Court in terms of s. 256(1) of the Act. The application for reference by the Tribunal having failed, the CIT, Bihar moved this Court under s. 256(2) of the Act. This Court called for the following three questions to be answered by this Court. The questions thus falling for our consideration are as follows :
"(1) Whether, the CIT acting under s. 263 can interfere with the order of assessment made under s. 143(1) in pursuance of a scheme to help the new taxpayers in small income group launched by the Government ?
(2) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the order of the CIT setting aside the assessment made by the ITO was valid in law ?
(3) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was justified in holding that the scheme of the Act compels the ITO to pass the assessment order under s. 143(1) even in the case of the ladies and minors without the initial capital and other things being properly investigated and proved ?"
2. The questions falling for our consideration are concluded by the decisions of this Court in CIT v. Pushpa Devi (1987) 164 ITR 639 (Pat) and CIT v. Smt. Rambha Devi (1987) 164 ITR 658 (Pat), in which we held that the Scheme did not apply to ladies and minors. We also held that no enquiry in terms of s. 143 of the Act had been effected by the ITO. We also held that in the facts and circumstances of the case, the Commissioner was fully justified in cancelling the order of assessment passed by the ITO.
3. The same questions had been referred to us for our opinion in CIT v. Pushpa Devi (supra) and CIT v. Rambha Devi (supra). All the three questions before us must, therefore, be answered in favour of the Revenue and against the assessee and we do so accordingly. In the special circumstances of the case, there shall be no order as to costs.