Time-barred tax relief claim requires timely application; officer need not grant section 25 relief from existing records.

Relief under section 25(4) was contingent on the assessee making a claim before the Income-tax Officer, because the officer had to carry out the corresponding assessment adjustment and refund process. The statutory scheme treated the relief as an option for the assessee, and section 25(5) imposed a one-year time limit for exercising that option. A claim made after that period was not maintainable merely because the officer already knew the relevant facts or could have alerted the assessee to the remedy. The belated claim was therefore rejected as time-barred.

---

---

Issues: Whether relief under section 25(4) could be granted when the claim was not made within the one-year period prescribed by section 25(5), and whether the Income-tax Officer was bound to grant the relief on the basis of the information already available.

Analysis: Relief under section 25(4) depended upon the assessee making a claim before the Income-tax Officer, because the officer had to undertake the consequential assessment adjustment and refund exercise. The statutory scheme gave the assessee an option to claim relief or not to claim it, and the legislature imposed a time limit for exercising that option. Where no claim was made within the period prescribed by section 25(5), the right could not be enforced later merely because the officer was aware of the relevant facts or because the assessee suggested that the officer should have alerted him to the remedy.

Conclusion: The belated claim was not maintainable and the refusal of relief was .

---