Independent incriminating material can sustain criminal complaints despite a set-aside reassessment order, limiting quashing under section 482 CrPC.

Criminal complaints alleging concealment of income, false verification and fabrication of accounts were not quashed merely because the reassessment order under the Income-tax Act had been set aside. The HC held that the complaints contained independent incriminating material from search, including books, documents with alleged false entries and a chartered accountant's certificate showing discrepancies. Where the complaint discloses material beyond the assessment order, the criminal court must examine the evidence independently and is not controlled by tax proceedings. At the cognizance or summoning stage, interference under section 482 CrPC is warranted only when no offence is disclosed on the face of the record, so the complaints were allowed to proceed.

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Issues: Whether criminal complaints alleging concealment of income, false verification, and fabrication of accounts could be quashed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 merely because the assessment order made pursuant to notice under section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 had been set aside and reassessment had been directed.

Analysis: The complaint was not founded only on the reassessment proceedings or the returns filed pursuant to notice under section 148. It also contained allegations of independent incriminating material discovered during search, including books of account and documents allegedly containing false entries and a chartered accountant's certificate showing discrepancies. The Court held that, where the complaint discloses material independent of the assessment order, the criminal court must decide the case on the evidence before it and is not bound by the outcome of tax proceedings. At the stage of cognizance or summoning, the High Court should interfere sparingly and only where no offence is disclosed on the face of the record.

Conclusion: The petitioners were not entitled to quashing of the criminal proceedings, and the complaints were maintainable to proceed on their own merits.

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