False Return - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition false-return

Definition :

False return by sheriff on nulla bona to writ of fi. fa, after levying is actionable; for form of claim, see Bullen and Leake, Prec. Of Pl.

A process server's or other court officials recorded misrepresentation that process was served, that some other action was taken, or that something is true, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 619.

A return cannot be said to be 'false' unless there is an element of deliberations in it. It is possible that even where the incorrectness of the return is claimed to be due to want of care on the part of the assessee and there is no reasonable explanation forthcoming from the assessee for such want of care, the Court may, in a given case, infer deliberations and the return may be liable to be branded as a false return. But where the assessee does not include a particular item in the taxable turnover under a bona fide belief that he is not liable so to include it, it would not be right to condemn the return as a 'false' return inviting imposition of penalty, Cement Marketing Co. of India Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, AIR 1980 SC 346: (1980) 1 SCC 71: (1980) 1 SCR 1098. [ M.P. General Sales Tax Act, (2 of 1959), s. 43]