Law:

Section:

Section 256, lead with section 271(1)(a), of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Reference - Question of law - Assessee-firm carrying on business of supplying electrical goods -mainly to railway, filed return belatedly on 28-5-1975 while the return was due on 31-7-1974 - Assessee's explanation for late filing of return was that there was delay in finalisation of accounts as confirmations of balance from Government department had not been received and that its auditors did not complete audit till 21-5-1975 - However, Tribunal set aside penalty imposed on assessee under section 271(1)(a) observing, inter alia, that it was for department to show absence of reasonable cause on part of assessee before any penalty was exigible under section 271(1)(a) - Whether in view of prima facie erroneous approach of Tribunal a question of law arose from order of Tribunal even though, normally, whether a reasonable cause exists or not, is a question of fact - Held, on facts, yes Facts For the relevant assessment year 1974-75, the assessee-firm carrying on the business of supplying electrical goods, mainly to the railway, filed the return belatedly on 28-5-1975 while it was due on 31-7-1974. The assessee's explanation for late filing of the return was (i) that there was delay in the finalisation of the accounts, as confirmations of the balances from the Government department had not been received, and (ii) that its auditors did not complete the audit till 21-5-1975 and, as such, the return was filed on 28-5-1975. The Tribunal quashed the penalty observing, inter alia, that it was for the department to show absence of reasonable cause on the part of the assessee before any penalty was exigible under section 271(1)(a). On an application under section 256(2): Held Whether the Tribunal adopted a right legal approach in observing that it lay upon the department to show absence of reasonable cause on the part of the assessee before any penalty under section 271(1)(a) could be exigible, gave rise to a question of law. Ex facie, the approach that the revenue must establish the negative may not be sustainable inasmuch as when some facts are within the knowledge of a particular person it is…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492