Allowed

Commissioner of Income-Tax, Delhi v. S. Teja Singh

Supreme Court5 Nov 19581958 INSC 95 · [1959] SUPP. 1 S.C.R. 3941958 INSC 95

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

The Supreme Court held that the Income-tax Officer could impose a penalty under s. 28 for failure to send an advance tax estimate under s. 18A(3). The Court ruled that the legal fiction in s. 18A(9) treating such failure as non-furnishing of return necessarily deems the requisite notice under s. 22 to have been issued and complied with.

What did the court decide?

The order of the High Court was set aside and the reference was answered in the affirmative.

What the court decided

Commissioner of Income-Tax, Delhi versus S. Teja Singh — Income Tax | Supreme Court (1959)

¶1

394 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959] Supp. r95B his administrative capacity. It follows from this conclusion that all considerations flowing from the basic Gullapalli idea of the proceedings before the State Government Nageswara Rao and 011.,,. being of a quasi-ju icia c aracter, d l h are w o y h JI out o f v. the way. ·It must, therefore,' be held tha~ the order of Andhra' Prade<h the State ·Government, impugned in this. case, is not State Road Trans- open to any interference by the courtR. I would, there- port Corporation fore, dismiss the petition with costs. and Another ·

¶2

Sinha ].

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ORDER

¶4

In view of the opinion of the majority the order approving the scheme is hereby quashed and a direction issued to the 'first respondent to forbear from taking over any of the routes in which the petitioners are engaged in transport business. This will not preclude the State Government from making the necessary enquiry in regard to the objections filed by the petitioners in accordance with law. The petitioners will have liberty to file additional objections, if any. The parties to bear their own costs.

¶5

COMMISSIONER OF INCOME-TAX, DELHI

November 5.

S. TEJA SINGH

(T. L. VENKATARAMA AIYAR, P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR and A. K. SARKAR, JJ.)

¶10

I ncome-tax-P enalty-N ew assessee-F ailure to send estimate of tax-Absence of notice t-0 the assessee-Competency of Income-tax Officer to levy penalty-Indian Income-tax Act, r922 (XI of r922), ss. r8A(3), r8A(9), 22, 23, 28.

¶11

The respondent who had not been assessed to income-tax prior to the assessment year 1948-49 made suo motu returns on July 4, 1949, showing an income of Rs. 4,494 and Rs. 31,646 respectively, for the assessment years 1948-49 and 1949-50, but failed to send an estimate of the tax on his income as provided in s. 18A(3) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. The Incometax Officer took action under s. 28 read withs. l8A(9) of the Act and imposed a penalty on him for the years 1948-49 and 1949-50.

¶12

(1) S.C.R .. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

¶13

395

¶14

The Appellate Tribunal held that the order imposing the penalty was ultra vires on the ground that s. 28 would, in terms, ar;ily only when a person failed to furnish the return when he was required so to do by notice under s. 22 or s. 34 of the Act, and that there could be no such notices with reference to estimates of tax on income to be ·Sent under s. 18A(3). The High Court, on reference, agreed with the view of the Tribunal.

¶15

C01n1nissioner of I nconie-tax .v. 1"eja Singh

¶16

Held, that in view of the legal fiction contained in s. 18A(9) of the Act that when an assessce has failed to comply with s. 18A(3) he "shall be deemed to have failed to furnish the return of his total income and the provisions of s. 28, so far as may be, shall apply accordingly ", the failure to send an estimate of the tax under s. 18A(3) should be treated as failure to furnish return of income under s. 22. Accordingly, it was cori1petent to the Income-tax authorities to impose a penalty under s. 28 read withs. 18A(9)(b) where there has been a failure to comply with s. 18A(3).

¶17

The relevant provisions of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922~ are set out in the judgment.

¶18

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appca.l No. 122 of 1957.

¶19

Appeal from the order dated November 4, 1954, of the Punjab High Court (Circuit Bench) at Delhi in Civil Reference No. 15 of 1953.

¶20

R. Ganapathy Iyer, R. H. Dhebar and D. Gupta, for the appellant.

¶21

P. M. Mukhi, Gopal Singh for Udhai Bhan Choudhry, for the respondent.

¶22

P. M. Mukhi and Ganpat Rai, for Dahnia ,Jain Aviation Ltd. (now Asia Udyog Ltd.) (Intervener).

¶23

November 5. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

¶24

VENKA'l'ARAMA AIYAR, J.-This is an appeal against tho judgment of the High Court of Punjab in a refercnce under s. 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, hereinafter referred to as the Act.

¶25

Vcnk"t"rama Aiyar J.

¶26

The facts are that the respondent had not been assessed to income-tax prior to the assessment year 1948-49. On July 4, 1949, he made suo motu returns showing an income of Rs. 4,494 for the accounting year 1947-48 being the previous year for the assessment year 1948-49 and an income of Rs. 31,646 for

¶27

396 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959] Supp.

¶28

the accounting year 1948-49 being the previous year Commissioner of for the . assessment year 1949-50. By orders dated Income-tax August 25, 1949, the Income-tax Officer assessed the v. income for the. assessment year 1948.49 a.t Rs. 6,277 Teja Singh and for the assessment year 1949-50 a.t Rs. 36,281. The correctness of these orders is not in question Venkatarama before us. We are concerned in these proceedings with Aiyay j. the vires of an order, which the Income-tax Officer made on October 9, 1950, under s. 28 read with ss. 18A(3) and 18A(9) of the Act. It will be convenient to set out these provisions, so fa.r as they a.re material for the purpose of this appeal. Section 18A(3) provides that:

¶29

"Any person who has not hitherto been assessed ~hall, before the 15th day of March in ea.ch financial year, if his total income of the period which would be the previous year for an assessment for the finanqia.l year next following is likely to exceed six thousand rupees, send to the Income-tax Officer a.n estimate of the tax payable by him on that pa.rt of his income to which the provisions of section 18 do not apply of the said pi;evious year calculated in the manner la.id down in sub-section (1), and shall pay the a.mount, on such of the dates specified in that sub-section a.s have not expired, by instalments which ma.y be revised according to the proviso to sub-section (2)." Section 18A(9) is as follows:

¶30

"If the Income-tax Officer, in the course of any proceedings in connection with the regular assessment, is satisfied that any assessee-

¶31

(a) has furnished under sub-section (2) or subsection (3) estimates of the tax payable by him which he knew or had reason to believe to be untrue, or

¶32

(b) has without reasonable ca.use failed to comply with the provisions of sub-section (3),

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the assessee shall be deemed, in the case referred to in clause (a), to have deliberately furnished inaccurate particulars of his income, and in the case referred to in clause (b ), to have failed to furnish the return of his total income; and the provisions of section 28, so far as may be, shall apply accordingly:".

¶34

(l) S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 397

¶35

Then, there is a proviso which imposes a limit on the amount of penalty, which can be levied. Section 28 of tho Act runs as follows :

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(1) "If the Income-tax Officer, ...... in the course of any proceedings under this Act, is satisfied that any person-

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( a) has without reasonable cause failed to furnish the return of his total income which he was required to furnish by notice given under sub-section (1) or subsection (2) of section 22 or section 34 or has without reasonable cause failed to furnish it within the time allowed and in the manner required by such notice, or (b) has without reasonable cause failed to comply with a notice under sub-section (4) of section 22 or subsection (2) of section 23, or

¶38

cc.m11zissionet of Jncomeptax v. Teja Singh

¶39

V enleataranta Aiyar ].

¶40

¶41

he ... may direct that such person shall pay by way of penalty, in the case referred to in clause (a), in addition to the amount of the income- tax and supertax, if any, payable by him a sum not exceeding one and a half times that amount, and in tho cases referred to in clauses (b) and (c), in addition to any tax payable by him, a sum not exceeding one and a half times the amount of the income-tax and super-tax, if any, which would have been avoided if the income as returned by such person had been accepted as the correct income:".

¶42

The Income-tax Officer held that as the respondent had failed to send an estimate of the tax on his income as provided ins. 18A(3) he became liable to be proceeded against under s. 28, and accordingly imposed a penalty of Rs. 40 for the year 1948-49 and Rs. 1,000 for the year 1949-50. On appeal, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner confirmed the order in so far as it imposed a penalty for the year 1948-49 but set it aside as regards the year 1949-50 on the ground that by reason of the assessment for the year 1948-49 the respondent ceased to be a new assessee for 1949-50, and that, in consequence, s. 18A(3) had no application. Against the order cancelling the penalty for 1949-50,

¶43

398 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959) Supp.

¶44

the Income-tax Officer preferred an appeal to the

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Commissione. 1 Appellate Tribunal, which disagreed with the view of Ineome·t•~ 0 the Appellate Assistant Commissioner that the responv. dent was no longer a new assessee within s. 18A(3) of

¶46

Teja Singh the Act, but held that the order of the Income-tax Officer imposing a penalty under s. 28 was ultra vires,

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.VenAatarama b ecause t h at section wou , in terms, Jd app J y on y w J h en Aiyar ]. a person failed to furnish the return when he was required so to da by notice under s. 22 or s. 34 of the Act, and that there could be no such notices with reference to estimates of tax on income to be sent under s. 18A(3). In the result, the appeal was dismissed. On the application of the appellant, the Tribunal referred the following question for the opinion of the High Court:

¶48

"Whether on a true construction of Section 18A(9) (b) read with section 28 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, a penalty may be imposed for a total failure to comply with the provisions of Section 18A(3) of the said Act?"

¶49

The reference was heard by Bhandari, C. J., and Falshaw, J., who agreed with the Tribunal that the conditions as to notice laid down in s. 22(1) or s. 22(2) must be satisfied even when action was sought to be taken under s. 28 in respect of a failure t-0 comply with s. 18A(3), and that as those conditions had not been satisfied, the order imposing penalty was bad. The appellant applied for a certificate under s. 66A(2) of the Act, and the same was granted, and that is how the appeal comes before us.

¶50

The sole question that a.rises for our determination in this appeal is whether under s. 28(1) read with s. 18A(9) of the Act, it is competent to the Income- tax authorities to impose a penalty on a person who has failed to comply with s. l8A(3) of the Act. In answering it in the negative, the learned Judges in the court below wre influenced almost exclusively by the terms of s. 28 which they held did not co>er failure to comply with s. l8A(3). Now, s. 28(1) provides for penalty being imposed in three classes of cases which are mentioned respectively in els. (a), (b) and (c). Clause (b) deals with cases where there has been failure.

¶51

(1) S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

¶52

399

¶53

to produce documents or accounts or other evidence which the assessee ha.d been required to produce under s. 22(4) ors. 23(2) of the Act, and that is not relevant for the purpose of the present discussion.· Then, there a.re els. (a.) and (c), a.nd they have reference, stating it in plain language, cl. (a) to failure to make a return and cl. (c) to making false return. Now, the learned Judges observe that if an estimate of the tax is furnished under s. 18A(3) and that is deliberately inaccurate, that will fall under s. 28(1Xc) read withs. 18A (9)(a) and penalty could be imposed under that section, but that that could not be done when there is failure to furnish an estimate as required by s. 18A(3), because sub-s. (1) of s. 28 would apply only when a person failed to furnish the return when he had been required to do so. by notice under s. 22(1) ors. 22(2) ors. 34, or ha.d failed to furnish it within the time allowed and in the manner required by the notice, and that there could be no such notice with reference to s. 18A(3). Say the learned Judges:

¶54

z9⁵ a

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Commissioner of Income-tax v.

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Teja Singh Venkatarama Aiyar J.

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" In the first place, a person who fails to send an estimate under section 18A(3) cannot be said to have failed to furnish the return of his total income which he was required to furnish in response to a notice issued under section 22 or section 34 ; secondly, the said person cannot be said to have failed to furnish it within the time allowed and in the manner required by such notice, for, estimates under section 18A(3) must be furnished before the 15th March in the financial year immediately preceding the year ,of assessment whereas the returns required by the notices under sections 22 a.nd 34 can be furnished at later dates."

¶58

With respect, the error in this reasoning lies in this that it fails to give due effect to the fiction contained in s. 18A(9)(b) of the Act. Under that provision, when an a.ssessee has failed to comply with s. 18A(3) he" shall be deemed to have failed to furnish the return of his total income a.nd the provisions of section 28, so far as ma.y be, shall apply accordingly." In other words, by a legal fiction the faihre to send an estimate of the tax under s. 18A(3) is treated as a

¶59

400 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959] Supp.

¶60

'95⁸ failure to furnish return of income under s. 22. It is a.

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Commission., of necessary implication of this fiction that the estimate Income-tax of ta.x on the income to be submitted under s. 18A(3) v. is, in fact, different from the return to be furnished

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1'eja Singh under s. 22, a.nd to appreciate the full significance of

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Venkatarama this fiction, it is necessary to examine what the dis- Aiyar J. tinction is. Under s. 3 of the Act, the tax is pa.ya.hie on the income of the previous year. A statement of that income can be furnished only a.fter that year ends, a.nd s. 22 enacts provisions as to when it is to be furnished in the assessment year. ·sub-sections (1) and (2) provide for notices being given and the assessee is required to file his statement of income within the period provided therein, and it is this statement that is termed "return". Section 18A(3), however, relates to the sending of a statement of tax on the income of the accounting year before the 15th day of Ma.rch of that year itself, and that statement is termed not a. return but an estimate, and quite rightly, because in the very nature of it, it ca.n only be that. A person who sends an estimate under s. 18A(3) has also to send a return of his income for the accounting year under s. 22, and sub-ss. (4) and (5) of s. 18A provide for adjustment of advance tax pa.id under s. 18A(3) towards the tax as finally computed under s. 23. Thus, there is a clear dist.inction between a return .of income under s. 22, which can only be during the year of assessment a.nd an estimate of tax on income under s. 18A(3), which can only be in the year of account.

¶64

It is in the light of this distinction that the effect of

¶65

the legal fiction enacted in s. 18A(9)(b) that when a person fails to send an estimate of tax on his income under s. 18A(3) he shall be deemed to have failed to furnish return of his income, will have to be judged. The respondent contends that its effect is only to place the estimate to be sent under s. 18A(3) on the same footing a.s the return under s. 22 for purposes of s. 28,

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· and that that does not abrogate the other conditions la.id down in that section on which alone action could be taken thereunder and penalty imposed, and one of those conditions is the issue of notice under s. 22(1) or s. 22(2). But it must be noted thats. 18A(9) (b) does

¶67

•

¶68

(I} S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

¶69

401

¶70

not merely say ~hat an estimate under s. 18A(3) shall be deemed to be a. return. It enacts that the failure c to sen d an es t1ma^. t . e m a.ccor d a.nee WI "th s. ISA(a) . IS t o be deemed to be a failure to make a return. Now, there can be no failure to make a. return, unless notice had been issued under s. 22(1) or s. 22(2) and there has been a default in complying with that notice. Therefore, the fiction that the failure to send an estimate is to be deemed to be a failure to send a return necessarily involves the fiction that notice had been issued under s. 22, and that had not been complied with. It is a rule of interpretation well settled that in construing the scope of a legal fiction it would be proper and even necessary to assume all those facts on which alone the fiction can operate. The following oft-quoted observations of Lord Asquith in East End Dwellings Oo. Ltd. v. Finsbury Borough Council (1) may appropriately be referred to :

¶71

I958

¶72

-. -.

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ommissioner of Income-ta;r v.

¶74

Teja Singh

¶75

Venk•tarama Aiyar J.

¶76

"If you are bidden to treat an imaginary state of affairs as real, you must surely, unless prohibited from doing so, also imagine as real the consequences and incidents which, if the putative state of affairs had in fa.ct existed, must invitably have flowed from or accompanied it. One of these in this case is emancipation from the 1939 level of rents. The statute says that you must imagine a certain state of affairs; it does not say that having done so, you must cause or permit your imagination to boggle when it comes to the inevitable corollaries of that state of affairs." The fiction under s. 18A(9) (b) therefore that failure to send an estimate under s. 18A(3) is to be deemed to be a failure to send a return must mean that all those facts on which alone there could be a failure to send the return must be deemed to exist, and it must accordingly be taken that by reason of this fiction, the notices required to be given under s. i22 must be deemed to have been given, and in that v}V. s .. 28 would apply on its own terms. \

¶77

Some argument was addressed to us based on the use of the definite article "the" qualifying the word (1) [1952] A.C. 109, 132. 51

¶78

402 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959] Supp.

¶79

i95~ "return" in s. 18-A(9)(b). It was said that that expres- Commissioner of sion meant the return which is to be furnished under Income-lax s. 22, and that that requires that there must have been v. a notice issued under s. 22(1) or s. 22(2), before action Teja Siflgh could be taken under s. 28. In the view expressed above that the fiction enacted in s. 18-A(9)(b) involves the Venkatarama fiction that notices had been issued under s. 22(1) or Ar d s. 22(2), this contention oes not call for further consideration.

¶80

It was finally argued that a fiscal statute and especially one imposing a. penalty, should be Btrictly construed and that if the words of the enactment be not sufficiently explicit to reach the subject, the Revenue must fail, and the following observations in Vestey's (Lord) Executors v. Inland Revenue Commissioners(') were relied on in support of this position :

¶81

"Parliament in its attempts to keep pace with the ingenuity devoted to tax avoidance may fall short of its purpose. That is a misfortune for the taxpayers who do not try to avoid their share of the burden, and it is disappointing to the Inland Revenue. But the court will not stretch the terms of taxing Acts in order to improve on the effOJ.'ts of Parliament and to stop gaps which are left open by the statutes. Tax avoidance is an evil, but it would be the beginning of much greater evils if the courts were to overstretch the language of the statute in order to subject to taxation people of whom they disapproved."

¶82

These observations would be in point if the language of the enactment left us in any doubt as to what the legislature meant. But can that be said of s. 18-A(9)(b)? Its object avowedly is to assimilate the position of a person who has failed to send the estimate under s. 18-A(3) to that of a person who has failed to furnish the return under s. 22, and that object is sought to be achieved by enacting the fiction which is contained in s. 18-A(9)(b). And if, on the principles laid down in East End Dwellings Co. Ltd. v. Finsbury Borough Council ('), the true effect of that fiction is that it imports that notice had been issued under s. 22, then the conditions prescribed in s. 28 of the Act are satisfied and (1) (1949] l All E.R. II08, II20. (2) (1952] A.C. 109, 132.

¶83

(1) S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

¶84

403

¶85

penalty could be imposed under that section for failure to comply with s. 18-A(3), on tho clear language of that enactment itself without straining or overstretch~lli

¶86

We must now refer to an aspect of the question, which strongly reinforces the conclusion stated above. On the construction contended for by the respondent, s.18-A(9)(b) would become wholly nugatory, as ss. 22(1) and 22(2) can have no application to advance estimates to be furnished under s. 18-A(3), and if we accede to this contention, we must hold that though the legislature enacted s. 18-A(9)(b) with the very object of bringing the failure to send estimates under s. 18-A(3) within the operation of s. 28, it signally failed to achieve its object. A construction which leads to such a result must, if that is possible, be avoided, on the principle expressed in the maxim, "ut res magis. valeat quam pereat". Vide Curtis v. Stovin(¹ ) a.nd in particular the following observations of Fry, L. J., at page 519:

¶87

r95B

¶88

Commissioner of Income-tax ~ Teja Singh Venkatarama Aiyar J.

¶89

•

¶90

"The only alternative construction offered to us would lead to this result, that the plain intention of the legislature has entirely failed by reason of a slight inexactitude in the language of the section. If we were to adopt this construction, we should be construing the Act in order to defeat its object rather than with a view to carry its object into effect".

¶91

Vide also Craies on Statute Law, p. 90 and Maxwell on The Interpretation of Statutes, Tenth Edn., pp. 236-237. "A statute is designed", observed Lord Dunedin in Whitney v. Commissioners of [nl,and Revenue (² ), "to be workable, and the interpretation thereof by a court should be to secure that object, unless crucial omission or clear direction makes that end unattainahle".

¶92

We are accordingly of opinion that it was competnnt to the Income-tax authorities to impose a penalty under s. 28 read withs. 18-A(9)(b) where there has been a failure to comply with s. 18-A(3).

¶93

In the result, we set aside the order of the court below and answer the reference in the affirmative. (1) [1889] 22 Q.B.D. 513. (2) [1925] ro Tax Cas. 88, uo.

¶94

404 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1959] Supp.

¶95

The appellant will have his costs here and in the court

¶96

x958

¶97

Commissioner of below· ln,omeo/ax v.

¶98

Appeal allowed.

¶99

-Teja Singh

¶100

V enkataram a Aiyar ] .

¶101

•

¶102

November 7.

¶103

THE SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER, BANGALORE

¶104

¶105

T. ADINARAYAN SETTY

¶106

(JAFER IMAM, S. K. DAS and J. L. KAPUR, JJ.)

¶107

Land Acquisition-Principles of valuation-Exemplars, use of-Land Acquisition Act, I894 (l of I894), ss. II and 23.

¶108

Certain land belonging to the respondent was compulsorily acquired by the Government for a maternity hospital. Most of the land consisted of building sites but there was a building on a small portion of the land and a portion was low lying-land. The Special Land Acquisition Officer held, on the basis of the value of sites previously sold by the respondent, that the market value of the land was Rs. IO/- per sq. yard and awarded a sum of Rs. l,41,169/- to the respondent as compensation. He did not give any compensation for the low lying land or for the building. Against this award the respondent raised an objection and a reference was made to the District Judge. The District Judge accepted the rate of Rs. IO/- per sq. yard as fair, reduced the amount of deductions for providing electric installations by Rs. lO,ooo/- and allowed a sum of Rs. 10,000/- for the low lying area at the rate of Rs. 3/- per sq. yard, thereby increasing the amount of compensation by Rs. 20,000/-. Not being satisfied the respondent appealed to the High Court. The High Court held that the rate of compensation for the land except the low lying portion, should be Rs. 13/8/- per sq. yard and for the low lying portion it should be Rs. 8/8/- per sq. yard. It further awarded a sum of Rs. 7,000/- for the building. In arriving at the figure of Rs. 13/8/- the High Court took into account only four sale transactions which had been made by the respondent at the rates of Rs. 12, 15, 14 and 7/8/- per sq. yard but did not take into consideration two other, transactions which had been made by the respondent at the rates of Rs. 6/8/- and Rs. 10 per sq. yard. . It calculated the average of the four transactions to be Rs. 12/2/per sq. yard and then took a second average between Rs. 15/-,

¶109

Commissioner of Income-Tax, Delhi v. S. Teja Singh

Case brief

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Commissioner of Income-Tax, Delhi v. S. Teja Singh

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