Law: Income Tax Act, 1961

Section: 143,143(1)(a),143(2)

Income-tax----Assessment---Procedure for assessment---Notice issued under. S. 143(2)--­Assessing Officer cannot issue intimation under S.143(1)(a) thereafter--­Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, S.143---[Apogee International Ltd. v. Union v. India (1996) 220 ITR 248 (Delhi) dissented from]. A reading of sections 143(1)(a) and 143(2) would show that if any notice under subsection (2) of section 143 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, has been issued for the scrutiny of the assessment and the matter is in progress in subsection (2) then to change the course and resort to section 143(1)(a) of the Act would be against the principles of natural justice. It is a cardinal principle of interpretation of the statute that normally the Court should endeavour to interpret the provisions of the statutes in a manner which will advance the cause of justice. Therefore, reading sections 143(1) and 143(2) together, it is evident that notwithstanding the fact that the Assessing Officer has issued a notice under section 143(1)(a) still he can exercise the power under subsection (2) of section 143. Therefore, the expression, which has been used, is "without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (2)" of the Act meaning thereby that the Assessing Officer has a power under sub­section (2), despite the fact that he has exercised his power earlier under subsection (1)(a) of section 143 of the Act. But the converse of it is not true. If the Assessing Officer has already issued a notice under subsection (2) of section 143 of the Act then in that case, he cannot send an intimation on the basis of the return filed and issue a notice of demand, that would amount to changing the course which the Assessing Officer had already set for himself. Gujarat Poly-AVX Electronics Ltd. v. Deputy CIT (1996) 222 ITR 140 (Guj.); Kamal Textiles v. ITO (1991) 189 ITR 339; (1991) MPL 441 (MP) and Modern Fibotex India Ltd. v. Deputy CIT (1995) 212 ITR 496 (Cal.) fol. Apogee International Ltd. v. Union v. India (1996) 220 ITR 248 (Delhi) dissented from. JUDGMENT A.K. MATHUR, C.J.---This is a reference under section 256(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, at the instance of the applicant/Revenue and the following question of…

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