Pre-assessment notice requirement: absence of the required pre-assessment notice invalidates post-year assessments despite later personal-return.

A pre-assessment jurisdictional requirement exists: where no voluntary return was filed and no personal notice was served within the assessment year, proceedings to assess after the year must comply with the statutory precondition of a pre-assessment notice; a subsequent return procured by an individual notice after the assessment year does not cure absence of that prerequisite. Best judgment assessment applies only where valid personal notices or related preconditions exist and cannot be invoked if the mandatory pre-assessment notice was omitted; returns procured by invalid post-year personal notices do not validate assessments.

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Issues: (i) Whether the return filed in 1948 was a return under Section 24(1) or Section 24(2) or Section 24(3) of the Bengal Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1944 or otherwise a return within the meaning of the Act; (ii) Whether, in any event, the assessment for the year 1944-45 was valid without service of a notice under Section 38(1) of the Act; (iii) Whether, in any event, the assessment was valid as a best judgment assessment.

Issue (i): Whether the return filed in 1948 was a return under Section 24(1) or 24(2) or 24(3) or otherwise a return within the meaning of the Act.

Analysis: The return was filed in 1948 only after service of an individual notice under Section 24(2) and not in response to the general notice under Section 24(1); its contents showed income below the taxable limit and it was procured by the Section 24(2) notice. A return under Section 24(1) is one voluntarily filed in response to the general notice and ordinarily shows assessable income; Section 24(3) permits filing before assessment but does not convert a return actually filed in compliance with a Section 24(2) notice into one under Section 24(1) or Section 24(3).

Conclusion: The return was a return under Section 24(2) of the Bengal Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1944 and was a return within the statutory form; it was not a return under Section 24(1) or Section 24(3).

Issue (ii): Whether the assessment for 1944-45 was valid without service of a notice under Section 38(1).

Analysis: Section 38(1) (corresponding to Section 34(1) of the Central Act) is a condition precedent where no notice under Section 24(2) was served during the assessment year and no voluntary return was filed in that year; a general notice under Section 24(1) does not itself commence assessment proceedings against a particular person. The statutory scheme differentiates returns/ proceedings started by Section 24(1) and those commenced by personal notices under Section 24(2); the absence of the mandatory Section 38(1) notice cannot be cured merely by subsequently obtaining a return procured by an invalid Section 24(2) notice, and the jurisdictional requirement of Section 38(1) was not satisfied.

Conclusion: No. The assessment for the year 1944-45 was not valid without service of a notice under Section 38(1) of the Bengal Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1944.

Issue (iii): Whether the assessment was valid as a best judgment assessment.

Analysis: Best judgment assessment under Section 25(5) applies to failures to comply with notices under Section 24(2) (and related returns under Section 24(3)), but not to mere non-submission under Section 24(1); because the precondition of a valid Section 38(1) notice was absent and the return was procured by an invalid Section 24(2) notice, the question of a lawful best judgment assessment does not arise.

Conclusion: The question whether the assessment was valid as a best judgment assessment does not arise.

Final Conclusion: The assessment challenged was invalid for want of the mandatory notice under Section 38(1) and the return filed in response to the post-assessment-year Section 24(2) notice cannot validate the assessment; accordingly the assessee succeeds on the central jurisdictional point and the assessment must be set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where no personal notice under Section 24(2) is served within the assessment year and no voluntary return is filed in that year, proceedings to assess after the assessment year require compliance with the statutory condition precedent in Section 38(1); a return procured by a notice that should have been preceded by a Section 38(1) notice cannot cure the absence of that mandatory preliminary step.

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