Reassessment on same material barred: a completed income-tax assessment cannot be reopened without fresh information or new material.

A completed income-tax assessment cannot be reopened under section 34(1)(b) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 merely because the Income-tax Officer later reappraises the same material and reaches a different view. Reopening requires both a belief that income has escaped assessment and information in the officer's possession that was not earlier considered. On the facts, the assessee had disclosed the primary facts about ownership of the building, partial use by its mining department, and receipt of rent, and no fresh information or newly discovered material supported the reassessment. The reopening was therefore only a change of opinion and was not competent.

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Issues: Whether reassessment under section 34(1)(b) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 was competent when the original assessment was reopened on the same material and without any fresh information.

Analysis: Reassessment under section 34(1)(b) required both reason to believe that income had escaped assessment and the existence of information in the Income-tax Officer's possession. The record showed that the assessee had disclosed the material primary facts relating to ownership of the building, partial user by its mining department, and receipt of rent. The reopening was not founded on any newly discovered fact or external information, and nothing indicated that the later steps taken by the officer yielded fresh material. A reassessment based only on a reappraisal of the same facts amounted to a mere change of opinion, which could not confer jurisdiction under the provision.

Conclusion: Reassessment under section 34(1)(b) was not competent, and the answer to the referred question was in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A completed assessment cannot be reopened under section 34(1)(b) merely because the Income-tax Officer later takes a different view on the same material; jurisdiction arises only when subsequent information, not earlier considered, forms the basis of the belief that income has escaped assessment.

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