Kerala Court July 1972 Judgments

P.K. Nair Vs. Income-tax Officer, A-ward and ors.

Court: Kerala

Reported in: [1973]90ITR512(Ker)

Govindan Nair, J.1. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution seeks to set aside notices, exhibits P-3, P-3(a), P-3(b), P-3(c) and P-3(d), issued under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') for the years 1950-51, 1951-52, 1952-53, 1953-54 and 1954-55 respectively. Very briefly stated, the grounds are that the Income-tax Officer had no reason to believe apd had no material before him for that belief that the income amounting to Rs. 50,000 had escaped assessment or was likely to have escaped assessment for any of the years mentioned above and had, therefore, no jurisdiction to reopen the assessments that had been completed long years ago. This has come up before us on an order of reference by Mathew J., in view of the question whether a remedy by an application under Article 226 of the Constitution would be available to an assessee in regard to notices issued under Section 148 of the Act for reassessment as envisaged by Section 147 of the...