Presumption of service by registered post sustains tax recovery where refusal to accept notice amounts to valid service.

Registered post gives rise to a statutory presumption of due service under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act and Section 114 of the Evidence Act, and that presumption is rebuttable only by credible contrary material. A bare denial does not suffice where the notice was properly despatched, some covers were returned with endorsements of refusal, and the addressee had responded to other statutory notices in the assessment proceedings. Refusal to accept a registered notice amounts to constructive knowledge and valid service. On that basis, the demand notices were treated as duly served, the petitioner was regarded as an assessee in default, and the recovery proceedings were upheld.

---

---

Issues: Whether the demand notices under the Income-tax Act, 1961 were duly served on the petitioner so as to treat him as an assessee in default and justify recovery proceedings.

Analysis: Service of notice by registered post attracts the statutory presumption of due service under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 and Section 114 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. That presumption is rebuttable, but it is not displaced merely by a bare denial. Where the registered covers are shown to have been properly despatched, where some were returned with endorsements of refusal, and where the addressee had consistently responded to other statutory notices in the assessment proceedings, the presumption of service remains intact. Refusal to accept a registered notice amounts to constructive knowledge of its contents and the notice is deemed to have been served.

Conclusion: The demand notices were duly served on the petitioner, and he was liable to be treated as an assessee in default; the recovery proceedings were therefore valid.

Final Conclusion: The petition failed because the petitioner could not rebut the presumption of service and the tax recovery action was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A notice sent by registered post is deemed served unless the addressee successfully rebuts the statutory presumption, and refusal to accept such notice amounts to valid service.

---