Undisposed voluntary return bars reassessment notice, and any assessment founded on that notice is invalid.

A reassessment notice cannot be validly issued under section 34 while a duly filed voluntary return under section 22(3) remains undisposed of. The pre-existing return continues to operate until it is dealt with by the Income-tax Officer, so ignoring it to trigger reassessment is incompetent. Because the notice itself was invalid, the assessments made on its basis also lacked legal foundation and were unsustainable. The resulting reassessment proceedings therefore failed, and the assessments were annulled.

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Issues: (i) Whether a notice for reassessment under section 34 could validly be issued against an assessee in his individual capacity when returns already filed under section 22(3) had not been disposed of; (ii) whether the assessments made pursuant to such notice were valid.

Issue (i): Whether a notice for reassessment under section 34 could validly be issued against an assessee in his individual capacity when returns already filed under section 22(3) had not been disposed of.

Analysis: A return filed voluntarily before assessment under section 22(3) remains effective until it is dealt with by the Income-tax Officer. Where such returns were filed in the assessee's individual capacity and had not been considered or disposed of, the reassessment machinery could not be set in motion by ignoring those returns. The existence of earlier returns therefore barred the issue of a valid notice under section 34.

Conclusion: The notice under section 34 was incompetent and invalid.

Issue (ii): Whether the assessments made pursuant to such notice were valid.

Analysis: Since the notice itself was not competent, the assessments founded upon it could not be sustained. A reassessment made on the basis of an invalid notice lacks legal foundation, even if other questions regarding partition or limitation are raised.

Conclusion: The assessments made pursuant to the notice under section 34 were invalid and unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings failed because the assessee's voluntarily filed individual returns had not been disposed of before the notice under section 34 was issued, and the resulting assessments were consequently annulled.

Ratio Decidendi: A reassessment notice cannot validly be issued while a duly filed voluntary return under the applicable return-filing provision remains undisposed of, and any assessment based on such notice is invalid.

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