Reassessment interest under the Income-tax Act can be levied even if it was omitted in the original assessment.

Interest under section 139(8) is not confined to regular assessment and may be levied in reassessment proceedings, because the provision contains no prohibition against such levy. The same reasoning applies to interest under section 217, so its inclusion for the first time in reassessment was legally permissible. The challenge that no interest had been charged in the original assessment therefore failed, and the reassessment levy was upheld.

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Issues: Whether interest under section 139(8) and section 217 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 could be levied for the first time in reassessment proceedings when no such interest had been charged in the original assessment.

Analysis: The reassessment was completed under section 143(3) read with section 147(a) after notice under section 148. The challenge was that, since the original assessment had not levied interest, the reassessment order could not do so. The Court held that section 139(8) does not confine levy of interest only to the course of regular assessment and contains no prohibition against levy in reassessment proceedings. Interest under that provision may therefore be charged in reassessment as well as in regular assessment, and the same reasoning applied to the interest levied in the reassessment order.

Conclusion: The levy of interest in reassessment proceedings was valid and the challenge to the order failed.

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