K.S. Hegde, J. - (1.) These appeals by certificate raise a common question of law, namely, whether the assessees (respondents in these appeals) have been properly served before action was taken under Section 33B of the Income-tax Act, 1922, which will be hereinafter referred to as " the Act ".
(2.) The assessment year with which we are concerned in these appeals are 1959-60, 1960-61 and 1961-62. The assessment for those assessment years was completed by the Income-tax Officer on November 28, 1961. There-after, the Commissioner of Income-tax initiated proceedings under Section 33B and issued notices to the assessees on October 19, 1963. Notices were issued by registered post. They were also entrusted to the income-tax inspector for personal service. It is conceded that the notices sent to the assessees by registered post were served long after the Commissioner passed his orders under Section 33B. He passed those orders on November 2, 1963, and the notices sent by registered post were only served on the assessees on November 18, 1963. Therefore, we can ignore those notices.
(3.) Now coming to the notices sought to be served personally by the income-tax inspector, Mr. Neogi, we have two reports of his before us. In the first report dated October 21, 1963, he stated : Had been to the above address for serving the notice under Section 33B on the above assessee. I contacted two persons who had been working there and gathered from them that M. Ramendra Nath Ghosh, a member of their family, who is usually available there had just then left for Calcutta and that he would not turn up during the rest of the day. They have however asked me to call on Mr. Ghosh tomorrow. Accordingly I have fixed up a time and have left a slip requesting Mr. Ghosh to wait for me.;