Law:

Section:

Section 277 of the income-tax act, 1961-Offences and prosecutions-In 1968 firm and its two partners found guilty of filing returns based on false set of accounts-Nothing on record that accused could either read or write or that books were written on instructions of accused-In 1976, magistrate found accused guilty but not sentenced him for specified minimum period of imprisonment specified in section 277-Whether magistrate justified-Held, on facts, yes Facts During a search conducted by the department in the premises of the respondent-firm in June 1968, it was noticed that two sets of accounts, one in Marwari and another in English, had been maintained and that the returns filed by the firm and two of its partners based on the accounts maintained in English contained false and fictitious figures and these figures were entered with the object of evading tax. In the course of prosecution proceedings, the Magistrate found that the guilt of falsification of accounts had been satisfactorily established, and that the offence was punishable under section 120B read with section 193 of the Indian Penal Code. Sentences under these provisions involving fine or rigorous imprisonment in lieu thereof were passed in June 1976, and the Magistrate also sentenced one of the partners to imprisonment till the rising of the court, for the offence punishable under section 277. The department appealed against the inadequacy of the sentence passed against the partner in view of the gravity of the offence committed, and also pleaded that the sentence fell short of the minimum period of six months prescribed in the proviso to section 277. Held The Magistrate had, in sufficient details, explained the reasons for not imposing the minimum period of imprisonment specified in section 277. Further the offences were committed ten years prior to the date of of the trial court. Since then four more years have passed by and the accused had suffered the agony of the anticipatory fall of the knife on his neck at any time metaphorically, in addition to fine imposed by the Court, the department had also imposed penalty for the offence committed. There was no evidence on record that either the accused…

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