Reassessment on fresh information upheld: section 148 notice is not invalid for non-disclosure of reasons at issuance.

Reassessment under section 147(b) requires post-assessment information that leads the Income-tax Officer to reasonably believe income has escaped assessment; a municipal intimation showing the original annual value basis was wrong satisfied that test, so reopening was valid. A notice under section 148 is not invalid merely because the assessee is not furnished, before or at issuance, with the reasons or materials forming that belief; any later duty to supply them does not affect the notice itself. The reassessment challenge therefore failed, and the impugned notice was upheld.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Income-tax Officer was bound to disclose, before or at the time of issuing notice under section 148, the reasons and materials on which he formed the belief that income had escaped assessment, and whether omission to do so invalidated the notice; (ii) Whether the intimation received from the Assessor and Collector of Municipal Taxes constituted "information" within section 147(b) so as to justify reopening the assessment.

Issue (i): Whether the Income-tax Officer was bound to disclose, before or at the time of issuing notice under section 148, the reasons and materials on which he formed the belief that income had escaped assessment, and whether omission to do so invalidated the notice.

Analysis: The statutory scheme of sections 147 and 148 does not require the Income-tax Officer to furnish to the assessee, before issuing the notice or simultaneously with it, the material on which he formed the requisite belief. The notice under section 148 is only the initiating step; the validity of the notice is not affected merely because reasons are not communicated at that stage. Any separate obligation, if it exists, to supply information after the notice does not nullify the notice itself.

Conclusion: The omission to disclose reasons or materials did not invalidate the notice.

Issue (ii): Whether the intimation received from the Assessor and Collector of Municipal Taxes constituted "information" within section 147(b) so as to justify reopening the assessment.

Analysis: Section 147(b) permits reassessment only where the Income-tax Officer receives information after the original assessment and, in consequence of that information, has reason to believe that income has escaped assessment. The municipal intimation showed that the rateable value earlier adopted was not fixed strictly on the basis of hypothetical rental value and that owner-occupied properties were assessed concessively. That revealed that the basis of the original assessment of annual value was wrong and that the income from property had escaped assessment. The case was not one of mere change of opinion on the same material.

Conclusion: The municipal intimation was information within section 147(b), and the reassessment notice was valid.

Final Conclusion: The petition challenging the reassessment notice failed, and the impugned notice was upheld as valid on the basis of fresh information leading to a reasonable belief of escapement of income.

Ratio Decidendi: For reassessment under section 147(b), the Income-tax Officer must receive post-assessment information leading to a reasonable belief of escapement, and a notice under section 148 is not invalid merely because the reasons or source of information are not disclosed to the assessee at the stage of issuance.

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