Primary facts disclosure defeats reassessment where property income was not returned but all material facts were already before the tax officer.

A reassessment notice was held invalid where the assessee had already placed all primary facts before the Income-tax Officer at the original assessment. The registered partition deed, the claim under section 25A, and the ownership and source of the properties were disclosed, and the assessment order itself showed that the officer had considered the partial partition. On that basis, the omission to return property income did not amount to failure to disclose material facts, because the assessee was only required to disclose primary facts and not the legal inference. The later reply could not change that position. The notice under section 147(a) was therefore without jurisdiction and quashed.

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Issues: Whether the assessee had disclosed fully and truly all primary facts necessary for the original assessment so as to bar action under section 147(a) and invalidate the notice under section 148.

Analysis: The return need not contain income from property when the assessee does not admit such income to be taxable in its hands. The assessee's duty is to place all primary facts before the Income-tax Officer and leave the legal inference to be drawn by the officer. Here, the registered partition deed, the claim under section 25A, and the ownership and source of the properties were before the Income-tax Officer at the original assessment. The assessment order itself showed that the officer had considered the partition deed and had treated the house and shops as the subject of a partial partition, while no property income was included in the assessment. On these facts, the omission to return property income did not amount to failure to disclose material facts. The alleged admission in the later reply could not alter the true position when read as a whole.

Conclusion: The notice issued under section 147(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was without jurisdiction and was liable to be quashed.

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