Belated return filed before sanction can defeat prosecution under income-tax non-filing provisions when assessment has already followed.

Prosecution under section 276CC of the Income-tax Act was held unsustainable where the assessee had filed the return belatedly before sanction, and the return had been accepted and assessed. The court treated the case as materially different from one of total failure to furnish a return, because section 276CC targets non-filing within the prescribed time. Since the factual premise for prosecution was that no return had been filed, but the return in fact existed before sanction and the assessment proceeded on that basis, the criminal proceedings were quashed.

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Issues: Whether prosecution under Section 276CC of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was sustainable when the return had been filed belatedly and had been accepted and assessed before sanction and complaint.

Analysis: The complaint was founded on a sanction under Section 279 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the consequential prosecution under Section 276CC of the Income-tax Act, 1961 proceeded on the premise that no return had been filed despite notice under Section 153 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The material position was that the return had in fact been filed before the sanction order, though belatedly, and that fact was not in dispute. Section 276CC applies where there is a failure to furnish the return within the prescribed time. Where the return is ultimately filed and accepted and assessment is carried out on that basis, the situation is materially different from one where the return remains non-existent.

Conclusion: The prosecution was not sustainable and the criminal proceedings were quashed.

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