Mehar Singh, J. - (1.) In this petition by Escorts (Agents) Private Limited, under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, there is only one question for consideration and that is whether the demand for advance payment of tax from the petitioner by respondent No. 2, the Income Tax Officer, Companies Circle III and Central Circle 1(1). New Delhi, by his order, dated November, 1, 1957, under section 18A(a) (1) of the Indian Income Tax Act No. (XI), 1922, based on a provisional assessment, of the latest previous year, under Section 23B of the Act, is a valid and legal demand?
(2.) Respondent No. I to the petition is the Commissioner of Income-tax, New Delhi. This petition was filed on March 12, 1958. At that time a revision petition against the order of respondent No. 2 was pending before respondent No. 1. Now that revision petition has been decided against the petitioner, a preliminary objection has been taken by the learned counsel for the respondents that the petition is incompetent because the order of respondent No. 2 has in the meantime been superseded by the revisional order of respondent No. 1 and in the petition there is no prayer with regard to that order of respondent No. 1. An application for amendment of the petition challenging the legality and validity of the order of respondent No. 1 has been made. In the circumstances of the case that application is allowed and the petition stands amended as prayed for in that application in regard to the revisional order of respondent No. 1 as well.
(3.) It is not necessary to go into the minor details of what is stated in the petition by the petitioner. For the purposes of the decision of the question under consideration only few facts are necessary. The last two regular assessments have been made for the assessment year 1952-53 and 1953-54. The last was made on January 11, 1958. But at the time the order under question was made only the first regular assessment with regard to die years 1952-53 had been made and that was on March 22, 1957. Then there have been four provisional assessments under Section 23B of the Act relating to the assessment year 1954-55 to 1957-58. It will be seen that the latest previous regular assessment at the time of the impugned order was that of 195253 and at the time of the date of the petition that of 1953-54, but the latest previous year's provisional assessment was of the assessment year 1957-58.;