Definite information for reassessment requires new material; a later Tribunal order alone cannot justify reopening a completed assessment.

A later Tribunal order in another assessee's case did not constitute definite information for reopening a completed assessment where the Income-tax Officer already had all relevant facts at the time of the original assessment. A subsequent realization that the earlier assessment was erroneous was not enough to invoke reassessment, because no new factual material had come into existence or entered the Officer's possession. The proper remedy for such an error was appeal, not reassessment. On that basis, reopening of the completed assessment was not justified.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal's later order in another assessee's case constituted definite information enabling reopening of the assessee's completed assessment under the reassessment provision.

Analysis: The assessment had been completed on the basis of facts already known to the Income-tax Officer. The later appellate order did not bring any new factual material into existence or into the Officer's possession. Where the Officer had all the relevant facts at the time of the original assessment, a later realization that the earlier assessment was erroneous does not amount to definite information that income had escaped assessment. The proper remedy for such an error was by appeal and not by invoking the reassessment power.

Conclusion: The later Tribunal order was not definite information within the meaning of the reassessment provision, and reopening of the completed assessment was not justified.

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