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assessment. This assessment order is Ext. VIII in the record. The assessee appealed against it and, subsequently, on December 14, 1953, that is, subsequent to the decision on the three writ petitions filed in the High Court of Travancore-Cochin, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Trivandrum, passed an order which has been produced before us with an application for taking it on the record. We accepted the application and both the assessment order, Ext. VIII dated January 21, 1952, and the appellate order dated December 14, 1953, will be duly considered by us. On February 12, 1952, the Income-tax Officer, Ernakulam, issued four notices to the assessee, two under s. 44 of the Cochin Act and two under s. 47 of the Travancore Act stating therein that in consequence of definite information which had come into his possession, he had discovered that the income of the assessee assessable to income-tax for the assessment years 1123 and 1124 M. E. had been under-assessed and the Income-tax Officer, therefore, proposed to re-assess the said income; the assessee was asked to submit a return in respect of his total world income, for the two years in question. On March 14, 1952, the Income-tax Officer, Kottayam, issued two similar notices to the assessee under s. 47 of the Travancore Act stating therein that he had discovered in consequence of definite information which had come into his possession that the income of the assessee for the two years 1123 and 1124 assessable to income-tax had either escaped assessment or had been under-assessed or had been assessed at too low a rate and therefore be proposed to re-assess the said income. Presumably, the Incometax Officer, Kottayam, issued the two notices, because it was doubtful if the Income-tax Officer, Ernakulam, had authority to issue notices to the assessee under the Travancore Act. Nothing, however, turns upon this, so far as the appeals before us are concerned.

On June 16, 1952, the assessee filed a writ petition in the High Court of Travancore-Cochin in which he challenged the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Officer, Ernakulam, to re- assess his income for the two assessment years, 1123 and 1124 M. E. On the very day on which the assessee filed his writ petition, the Incometax Officer, Ernakulam, made an "

escaped income "

assessment under s. 44 of the Cochin Act for the assessment year 1123. This' order was communicated to the assessee on June 17,1952, and the assessee filed a second writ petition in, the High Court TravancoreCochin ion June 19, 1952, in which he again challenged the, jurisdictions of the Income- tax-Officer, Erhakulam to make the assessment Linder s. 44 of the Cochin Act and further said' that %the assessment was made in spite of his application for adjournment 'and an 'order of stay passed by the High Court on June 17, 1952. On June 20, 1952 the assessee filed a third writ petition in the Travancore-Cochin High Court in respect of the two notices issued to him by the Income-tax Officer, Kottayam. By this writ petition the assessee challenged the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Officer, Kottayam, to issue the two notices; in question under s. 47 of the Travancore Act. ;These three writ petitions, numbered as original petitions 53, 56 and 57 of 1952, were dealt with together by the TravancoreCochin High Court and a Bench of three Judges of the said High Court held by their judgment and order dated September 14, 1953, that the, two Income-tax Officers concerned had jurisdiction to re-assess the income of the assessee for the: two assessment years 1123 and 1124 M. E. They accordingly dismissed the writ petitions, but without costs. They, however, gave a certificate that the cases were fit for appeal to the Supreme Court under Art. 133 of' the Constitution and on that certificate the three appeals, which we have called Travancore-Cochin appeals, have been brought to this Court, from the judgment and order of the High Court of Travancore-Cochin dated September 14, 1953. In the High Court three main points were urged on behalf of the assessee : the first point taken was that with the passing of the Finance Act, 1950, which made Travancore- Cochin a " taxable territory " within the meaning of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, incometax laws of Travancore and Cochin became void and inoperative and Parliament could not, under s. 13, keep alive the Income-tax Acts of Travancore and 'Cochin, or any, provisions thereof, inconsistent with the Constitution Section 13 of the Finance Act, 1950,was, therefore, invalid in so far as it tried to keep alive the Cochin Act or the Travancore Act for the purpose of levy, assessment and collection of incometax, for, the period referred to therein. The second contention was that even if s. 13 of the Finance Act, 1950,was valid and kept alive the provisions of the Cochin Act and the Travancore Act, it did so only " for the purpose of the levy, assessment and collection of income-tax and super-tax " in respect of the period mentioned in the section, and s. 13(1) did not have the, effect of saving the provisions of the Travancore Act or Cochin Act for, the purpose of " re-assessment of income- tax and super-tax ". The third contention urged was that neither of the two Income-tax Officers concerned had any definite information in consequence of which they came to any discovery that the income of the assessee for the two years in question had been under' -assessed or escaped assessment or had been assesed at too low a rate. It was contended on behalf of the assessee that the statements in the notices with regard to definite information etc. were only " a pretence to clutch at jurisdiction " and the very foundation of the action sought to be taken by the Income. tax Officers under s. 44 of the Cochin Act or s. 47 of the Travancore Act was non-existent. The learned Judges of the High Court negatived the aforesaid contentions, and as we have already stated, the writ petitions.

As in the High Court so also before us, the only document on which the Income-tax Officers relied for this part of their case is Ext. VIII. This document, according to the Income- tax Officers, furnished the definite information in consequence of which they made the necessary discovery. Learned counsel for the assessee has taken us through Ext. VIII, Ext. A (statement of the case submitted by the assessee to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner) and the order of the Appellate Commissioner, dated December 14, 1953, and he has contended that (1) Ext. VIII does not relate to the years in question and cannot, therefore, constitute definite information for those years; (2) it gives certain highly speculative grounds for discrediting the account books of the assessee, which grounds have not been accepted by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner; and (3) in any view, it contained no information on which the Income-tax Officers could be said to have made any discovery. As to (1) above, the High Court rightly pointed out that Ext. VIII contained information of a kind which disclosed a definite and systematic pattern of transactions for avoidance of tax not only in respect of the year covered by the order but spread over years anterior to it. Secondly, Ext. VIII disclosed, according to the Income-tax Officers concerned, a systematic suppression of cash Bales., a regular trade in purchase and sale of controlled commodities at profiteering rates, passing bogus bills for purchases, understating stocks, segregating stocks for clandestine sales, and selling goods to the branches at artificial book losses. There can be no doubt that all this information, if honestly believed, would reasonably support the opinion of the Income-tax Officers that there is a discovery of " escaped " income etc., within the meaning of s. 44 of the Cochin Act and s. 47 of the Travancore Act. But learned counsel for the assessee argues that while it may be right to say that Ext. VIII prima facie contains the kind of information which will satisfy the conditions of s. 44 of the Cochin Act and s. 47 of the Travancore Act, we must take note of the fact that according to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, as shown by his order dated December 14, 1953, the so-called information contained in Ext. VIII was really non-existent, and the information being non- existent, there was no foundation for the action taken by the Income-tax Officers. We are unable to accept this argument as correct. Apart from the consideration that the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner was not available when the Income-tax Officers issued their notices, we think that the argument overstates the effect of the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. It is true that the Appellate Assistant Commissioner considered in detail the various criticisms of the Income-tax Officer with regard to the account books along with the explanations offered on behalf of the assessee; but he expressed his final conclusion in the following words:

It cannot, therefore, be Raid that the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner washed out the entire information contained in Ext. VIII so as to strike at the very root of the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Officers concerned to issue the notices in question. It is to be remembered that there is a distinction between receipt of definite information as a consequence of which a discovery is made and a notice is issued, and the final determination as to the liability or extent of liability for escaped assessment etc. We accept as correct the view expressed in Firm Jitanram Nirmalram v. Commissioner of Income-tax (1), that the phrase " definite information " cannot be construed in a universal sense and its meaning must depend on and vary with the circumstances of each case. There is no doubt, however, that the information must be definite, that is, more than mere guess, gossip or rumour. There must also be a causal connexion between the information and the discovery; but " discovery " in (1) A.I.R. 1952 Pat. 163.