Separate charges for distinct tax offences are mandatory where multiple return-filing defaults are tried together and prejudice results.

Distinct failures to file returns for separate assessment years constitute separate offences under section 276CC of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and section 218 CrPC requires a separate charge and separate adjudication for each distinct offence unless a recognised exception applies. A single charge covering three defaults, with no separate findings or sentences and no consent to clubbing, was treated as a defect going to the root of the trial and causing prejudice. The conviction and sentence were therefore held unsustainable and set aside in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the conviction could be sustained where a single charge covered three distinct defaults under section 276CC of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and the trial and judgment did not record separate findings and sentences for each offence in compliance with the rule requiring a separate charge for each distinct offence.

Analysis: The defaults relating to the three assessment years were distinct offences, each arising from a separate failure to furnish the return in due time. Section 218 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 requires a separate charge and separate trial for every distinct offence, unless an exception applies. The record disclosed a single charge, no valid basis for clubbing, no separate finding or sentence in respect of each complaint, and no indication that the accused had sought or consented to such procedure. The defect was treated as one going to the root of the trial and causing prejudice, and the irregularity was not cured by the common discussion in the judgment.

Conclusion: The conviction and sentence were unsustainable and were set aside in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where distinct offences are charged as a single offence and the trial fails to comply with the requirement of separate charges and separate adjudication for each distinct offence, the conviction is vitiated if the defect causes prejudice to the accused.

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