Criminal liability for false tax returns requires specific allegations of knowing participation, not mere preparation of client accounts.

A chartered accountant cannot be subjected to criminal liability for allegedly false income-tax returns on the basis of a complaint that only states he prepared the accounts and typed them on his letterhead. In the absence of a specific averment that incriminating seized documents were before him, the complaint did not disclose material to infer conspiracy, common intention, or abetment. Mere preparation of returns from client-supplied material, without allegations of knowing participation in falsity, was insufficient. The Madras HC therefore held that the prosecution against him could not be sustained and that continuation of the proceedings would amount to an abuse of process, warranting quashing insofar as he was concerned.

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Issues: Whether the complaint disclosed a prima facie case against the petitioner for offences arising out of filing allegedly false income-tax returns, and whether the criminal proceedings deserved to be quashed.

Analysis: The complaint contained only the allegation that the petitioner, a chartered accountant, had prepared the accounts and typed them on his letter-head for the assessee. There was no specific averment that the seized documents, which later revealed the falsity of the returns, had been placed before the petitioner when he prepared the statements. In the absence of such material, the complaint did not supply a factual for holding that the petitioner had conspired with, shared a common intention with, or abetted the assessee in filing false returns. Mere preparation of accounts on the basis of material supplied by a client, without more, could not establish liability for the offences alleged.

Conclusion: The complaint did not disclose a prima facie case against the petitioner, and the prosecution could not be sustained against him.

Final Conclusion: Continuance of the proceedings against the petitioner would amount to an abuse of the process of law, and the criminal case was liable to be quashed insofar as it concerned him.

Ratio Decidendi: A chartered accountant who merely prepares accounts or returns on the basis of materials furnished by a client cannot be fastened with criminal liability for false return offences unless the complaint specifically alleges that the incriminating material was available to him and that he knowingly participated in the falsity.

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