Special tax-rate declaration must be filed for the relevant year; later reassessment cannot revive a lapsed statutory option.

A declaration under section 17(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 must be made for the relevant assessment year and within the time prescribed to secure the special rate concession for a non-resident. The provisos do not extend that benefit to earlier completed years merely because those assessments are later reopened under section 34. Reassessment is a distinct statutory mechanism and does not revive a lapsed option for prior years. Accordingly, a later declaration cannot operate for reopened reassessments of earlier years.

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Issues: Whether a declaration filed under section 17(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 in respect of a later assessment year could operate for reassessments of earlier completed years reopened under section 34 of the same Act.

Analysis: Section 17(1) grants a special rate concession to a non-resident who makes the required declaration in the manner and at the time prescribed. The provisos link the benefit to the assessment year for which the declaration is made and to assessments thereafter, not to reassessments reopened under the exceptional machinery of section 34. Although reassessment may technically resemble a continuation of the original assessment, it remains a distinct statutory , and reopening cannot revive an option not exercised within the prescribed time for the earlier years. Reading the provisos otherwise would create an anomalous result by allowing a late declaration to benefit escaped assessments while denying the same advantage to completed assessments.

Conclusion: The declaration filed for the later assessment year was not operative for the reassessments of the earlier years and the answer to the referred question was against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The statutory concession under section 17(1) could not be extended to earlier years merely because those completed assessments were reopened under section 34.

Ratio Decidendi: A declaration obtaining a special tax-rate concession must be made within the time and for the assessment year prescribed by the statute, and reopening under reassessment provisions does not revive a lapsed statutory option.

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