COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. DEWAN KUNJ LAL KANHAIYA LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A statement of the case has been submitted by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Patna Bench "A", Patna (hereinafter referred to as "the Tribunal"), referring the following question of law under Section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act "), for the opinion of this court:

(2.) FROM the statement of facts as stated by the Commissioner of Income-tax, Bihar, Patna, it appears that for the assessment year 1970-71, the due date for filing the return was September 30, 1970, but the assessee filed the return on August 10, 1971, and thus there was a delay in filing the return. The Income-tax Officer, therefore, initiated proceedings under Section 271(1)(a) of the Act before completion of the assessment. A notice under Section 274 read with Section 271(1)(a) of the Act was issued on December 10, 1971, which was served on the assessee on December 14, 1971, as mentioned by the Income-tax Officer in the penalty order at page 1 of the paper book. However, the assessment year was not mentioned in the said notice by inadvertence. This omission was removed by issuing a subsequent notice on March 12, 1974, which was served on the assessee on March 14, 1974. The case was fixed for hearing ultimately on March 20, 1974. The assessee failed to make any compliance and so the Income-tax Officer held that it was a fit case for imposition of penalty for late filing of the return and he imposed penalty of Rs. 1,108 under Section 271(1)(a) of the Act.

(3.) IT cannot be doubted that the first notice issued on December 10, 1971, and served on December 14, 1971, was a defective notice. However, when the second notice was issued on March 12, 1974, and served on the assessee on March 14, 1974, in which the assessment year was mentioned, the second notice was a valid notice and the proceeding cannot be held to be invalid because of the issue of the defective first notice.