Reassessment under section 147 is not a regular assessment, so penalty provisions tied to regular assessment do not apply.

Reassessment under section 147 of the Income-tax Act is not a "regular assessment" because section 2(40) confines that term to assessments under sections 143 or 144. The statutory scheme treats reassessment separately, and a section 148 notice deemed to be a section 139 notice does not convert the reassessment into a section 143 assessment. As section 273(b) applies only to proceedings connected with regular assessment, it cannot be invoked in reassessment proceedings under section 147.

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Issues: Whether reassessment made under section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, is a "regular assessment" so as to attract section 273(b) of that Act.

Analysis: The expression "regular assessment" is defined by section 2(40) as an assessment under section 143 or section 144. The scheme of the Act separately refers to assessment, reassessment or recomputation under section 147 in sections 148, 153, 246 and 271, showing that proceedings under section 147 stand apart from assessments under section 143 or 144. A notice under section 148 is treated as a notice under section 139 only by legal fiction and does not convert the resulting reassessment into an assessment under section 143. Since section 273(b) applies only in the course of proceedings connected with the regular assessment, it cannot be invoked where the assessment in question is a reassessment under section 147.

Conclusion: Reassessment under section 147 is not a regular assessment, and section 273(b) cannot be applied to such reassessment. The question is answered in the negative, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute defines "regular assessment" as assessment under specified sections, the expression must be confined to that defined meaning throughout the Act, and a reassessment under a separately designated provision does not fall within it for the purpose of penalty provisions limited to regular assessment.

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