Reassessment after four years needs recorded failure of full and true disclosure; notice quashed for lack of jurisdiction.

Reassessment under section 148 issued after four years from the end of the relevant assessment year requires the recorded reasons to show that income escaped assessment because the assessee failed to file a return, respond to notices, or disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for assessment. The recorded reasons here contained no such allegation or finding, so the jurisdictional condition for reopening was not satisfied. The notice was therefore invalid and quashed. The challenge based on the later amendment to section 10(15)(iv) was not examined, as the absence of the foundational disclosure failure was decisive.

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Issues: Whether a notice for reassessment issued under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, after expiry of four years from the end of the relevant assessment year was valid in the absence of any recorded failure by the assessee to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for assessment.

Analysis: The notice was issued beyond four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, so the first proviso to section 147 applied. In such a case, reopening is permissible only if the Assessing Officer records satisfaction that income has escaped assessment by reason of the assessee's failure to file a return, respond to notices, or disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for assessment. The recorded reasons did not contain any allegation, much less any finding, that the assessee had failed to disclose material facts fully and truly. Once that foundational requirement was absent, the jurisdictional condition for reopening was not met. In that view, it was unnecessary to examine the additional contention based on the subsequent amendment to section 10(15)(iv).

Conclusion: The reassessment notice was invalid and was quashed.

Final Conclusion: Reopening of the completed assessment after the prescribed four-year period could not be sustained without a recorded failure of full and true disclosure by the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where reassessment is initiated after four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, jurisdiction can be assumed only if the recorded reasons expressly establish the assessee's failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for assessment.

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