Deb, J. - (1.) The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has referred the following questions of law under Section 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, to this court: "1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the return filed suo motu for the assessment year 1956-57 beyond the period of four years from the expiry of that assessment year was invalid and that no fresh assessment could be made thereon for that year ?
(2.) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the Commissioner of Income-tax could not initiate proceedings under Section 33B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, against the legal representatives of the deceased assessee and that as such the order of the Commissioner of Income-tax under the said Section 33B was bad in law ?" 2. On March 31, 1962, the Income-tax Officer received the voluntary returns of income for the assessment years 1956-57 to 1961-62, filed by the assessee and on the same day he handed over the notices under Section 23(2) of the Act to the assessee's authorised representative, who was present before him, and completed the assessments for all those years on the very same day and issued demand notices, challans and copies of the assessment orders on that day.
(3.) The Commissioner of Income-tax then issued a show-cause notice under Section 33B of the Act, addressed to the assessee on February 28, 1964. Sri Bissessar Lal Gupta, the husband of the assessee, wrote to the Commissioner on March 6, 1964, informing him that the assessee had died on February 2, 1964, and he and his son were the legal representatives of the deceased assessee. On March 7, 1964, the Commissioner issued a fresh notice under Section 33B addressed to Bissessar Lal Gupta and his son as the legal representatives of the deceased assessee and fixed the hearing of the case on March 19, 1964. They appeared and contended before him that after the death of the assessee no proceeding could be taken against them under Section 33B of the Act, but it was rejected by the Commissioner who, on merits, held that the assessments were made by the Income-tax Officer without jurisdiction and they were done with undue haste and without making proper enquiries and investigation and those assessments were erroneous and prejudicial to the interests of the revenue. The Commissioner, therefore, set aside the said assessments and directed the Income-tax Officer to make fresh assessments in accordance with the law.;