KHUKHRAIN BROTHERS Vs. INSPECTING ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KHUKHRAIN Brothers, A. S. C. Contractors, is a partnership concern. Petitioners Nos. 2 and 4 to 7 are partners therein while petitioner No. 3 is a minor admitted to the benefits of the partnership business. It deals in supply of vegetables and other goods to the army. There is another sister concern of it, also working under the name and style of Khukhrain Brothers, commission agents, in the ground floor of the same premises in shop No. 1, Sector 26 (Vegetable Market), Chandigarh.

(2.) THE firm, through Vasdev Sahni, petitioner No. 2, filed its income-tax return on July 30, 1979, for the year 1979-80 declaring an income of Rs. 1,35,040. The Inspecting Assistant Commissioner (Asst.), Chandigarh, on February 26, 1982, framed the assessment in terms of Section 143 (3) of the Income tax Act on an income of Rs. 1,50,000 giving a finding that credits of Rs. 10,000 on November 11, 1978, Rs. 8,000 on January 20, 1979, and Rs. 10,000 on March 15, 1979, through encashment of self-cheques were, in fact, undisclosed income. The decision aforesaid was affirmed by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) on July 19, 1983, and by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (Chandigarh Bench) on May 14, 1985.

(3.) IN this view of the matter, the Income-tax Officer, District 1 (2), Chandigarh, filed against the firm and all its seven partners a complaint, annexure P-4, before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, on January 16, 1987, for their prosecution under Sections 276c and 277 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. In pursuance thereof, the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, summoned the petitioners before him through non-bailable warrants of arrest, initially on January 19, 1988, and thereafter on February 29, 1988. The firm as also its seven partners have moved this court through Cr. M. No. 787 M of 1988 for quashing the complaint.