same is to be performed by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Without going into the question as to whether the petitioner's stand is contradictory, we may note that the Assessing Officer while exercising its power under section 197, during the course of the enquiry, cannot undertake an exhaustive exercise to determine this issue conclusively. We find force in the submissions of Mr. Raghvendra Kumar Singh that the question as to whether the petitioner has constituted a permanent establishment, cannot possibly be undertaken in the enquiry having regard to the time frame permissible under law for deciding the application under section 197 of the Act. The reasons shown to us also take note of the fact that in the immediate preceding years, i.e., the assessment year 2016-17 and the assessment year 2017-18, for which regular assessment has been completed, the petitioner has been held to have a permanent establishment (PE) in India, and its total income from the contracts with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation have been held to be taxable under the Income-tax Act. Section 44BB of the Act is applied, and 10 per cent. of the contractual receipts were considered as business profits. The rate of tax being 40 per cent., a certificate was, accordingly, issued at 4 per cent. For the other assessment years as well, assessment has been completed and appeal is pending before the appellate authorities. The petitioner, obviously, disputes the finding of the respondent as erroneous and misplaced, on the ground that for the assessment year 2015-16, the first appellate authority following the decision of this court in the petitioner's own case, has held that the petitioner has no permanent establishment in India. Be that as it may, for the assessment years 2016-17 and 2017-18, this question has been determined against the petitioner. It is well-settled proposition that in tax jurisprudence, the principle of res judicata is not applicable to income tax proceedings. "In matters of recurring annual tax a decision on appeal with regard to one year's assessment is said not to deal with eadem questio as that which arises in respect of an assessment for another year and consequently not to set up an estoppel". [Ref : New Jehangir Vakil Mills Co. Ltd v. CIT (1963) 49 ITR (SC) 137]. "It is well settled that in matters of taxation there is no question of res judicata because each year's assessment is final only for that year and does not govern later years, because it determines only the tax for a particular period". [Ref : Installment Supply P. Ltd. v. Union of India [1962] AIR 1962 SC 53 (Constitution Bench)].
