Invalid reassessment notice for separate trusts and assessment years failed as a condition precedent to reassessment.

A reassessment notice under section 35 of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act was invalid because it was addressed to a person not shown to be the proper trustee, covered two separate trusts and multiple assessment years in a single composite notice, and did not call for the prescribed returns for each year. The court noted that the trusts had earlier been treated as separate assessees with separate GIR numbers, and that valid notice is a condition precedent for reassessment. As the notice was not framed with reference to section 16(2) and the relevant rules for each assessment year, the reassessment order based on it was also invalid.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment notice under section 35 of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955, was valid when it was addressed to a person who was not shown to be the proper trustee, when it was issued as a single notice for two separate trusts and for multiple assessment years, and when the assessee was not called upon to file the prescribed returns for each year.

Analysis: The trusts had been treated as separate assessees in earlier years and were allotted separate GIR numbers. The will creating the charities did not show that the person to whom the notice was addressed was the duly constituted trustee during the relevant period, and no proper enquiry had been made before proceeding on that footing. Reassessment under section 35 was also held to require a valid notice as a condition precedent, and the notice ought to have been framed with reference to the prescribed return under section 16(2) and the relevant rules for each assessment year. A single composite notice covering both trusts and all the assessment years was held to be invalid in the circumstances.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice and the reassessment order based on it were invalid, so the writ petition challenging that reassessment was allowed.

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