Limited remand for interest-expenditure recomputation cannot support fresh concealment penalty without identified inaccurate return particulars.

A limited remand confined to recomputing expenditure attributable to interest income does not reopen the entire assessment or permit a fresh penalty proceeding that places the taxpayer in a worse position. Reworking allowable expenditure on fixed-deposit and savings-bank interest, without identifying any inaccurate particular in the return, does not establish concealment of income or furnishing of inaccurate particulars. Penalty for concealment or inaccurate particulars was therefore not sustainable and was deleted for all relevant assessment years.

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Issues: Whether penalty for concealment of income or furnishing inaccurate particulars could be levied after a limited remand for reworking expenditure incurred to earn interest income.

Analysis: The earlier remand was confined solely to fresh adjudication of expenditure attributable to interest income from fixed deposits and savings-bank deposits; it did not set aside the entire assessment. The Assessing Officer could not place the assessee in a worse position by initiating fresh penalty proceedings on the consequential recomputation. The reworking of allowable expenditure did not establish concealment or inaccurate particulars, particularly where no inaccurate particular in the return was identified.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 271(1)(c) was not sustainable and was deleted for all the assessment years.

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