ARTISAN PRESS LIMITED Vs. INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THREE points have been urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner in support of the challenge to an order of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal imposing a penalty under section 28(1)(c) of the Income-tax Act impugned in this writ petition :

(2.) THE order impugned was one by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal which imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,000 on the petitioner Messrs. Artisan Press Limited. THE concerned assessment year was 1953-54 and the company had preferred an appeal to the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal felling itself aggrieved by the assessment order passed by the officer and confirmed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. THE appeal was heard on October 6, 1955, and the hearing concluded on October 7, 1955. One of the items of dispute raised before the Tribunal related to a claim by the assessee to deduct certain commissions said to have been paid, in computing its total income. This payment had been disallowed by the departmental authorities on legal grounds and the propriety of this disallowance was challenged before the Tribunal. At the hearing of the appeal however the members of the Tribunal examined the accounts of the assessee for the purpose of finding out whether the payment had in fact been made. In passing, it may be mentioned, that the payment was said to have been made to one of the directors of the company by name Ponnambalam. THE Tribunal examined the ledger and finding that the entry in relation to this payment was by way of interpolation, directed the assessee to produce the cash book and supporting vouchers. All these were produced on October 7, 1955, on which date the Tribunal concluded the hearing and completed their order under section 33(4). In the course of this order the Tribunal recorded :

(3.) THE objection as regards the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to pass the order was rested on the terms of section 28 as explained by the decision of this court in Sivagaminatha Moopanar and Sons v. Income-tax Officer, II Circle, Mathurai. THE passage relied on read :