Law:

Section:

Section 271B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Penalty - For failure to get accounts audited - Penalty under section 271B was levied on assessee-firm for non-submission of audit report along with return - On appeal, Commissioner (Appeals) deleted penalty - However, on revenue's appeal, Tribunal reversed findings of Commissioner (Appeals) holding that certificate issued by auditor giving reasons for delay in auditing accounts of assessee would not constitute a reasonable ground within meaning of section 271B as there was no evidence on record to show that any effort was made by assessee to get its accounts audited within scheduled time - Whether proof relating to sufficient reasons was a matter of factual detail and no question of law was involved in matter - Held, yes - Whether therefore, appeal filed against order of Tribunal was to be dismissed - Held, yes JUDGMENT 1. Heard Mr. D.K. Mishra, learned senior counsel for the appellant and also Mr. U. Bhuyan, learned standing counsel for the revenue. 2. This income-tax appeal was admitted for hearing on the following substantial questions of law : "(a )Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal ignoring the relevant materials, namely, auditor's letter dated 5-6-1991, before it was justified and did not err in holding that there was no reasonable cause for the delay in submitting the audit report by the assessee and this pass a perverse order ? (b )Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal interpreted the word 'reasonable cause' appearing in section 273B under the Act contrary to the principle of interpretation of such words as has been laid down by the Apex Court in Surinder Singh Sibia v. Vijay Kumar Sood [1992] 1 SCC 70, paragraph 2 in Sarpanch Lonand Grampanchayat v. Ramgiri Gosavi AIR 1968 SC 222, paragraph 4 and other various decisions ?" 3. As understood from the submission of learned counsel for the parties, the dispute in a narrow compass is whether the certificate (Annexure-A) issued by the auditor explaining the delay in auditing the accounts of the assessee (appellant) would in itself constitute reasonable cause within the meaning of section 273B…

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