Escaped assessment notice fails where the same share income was already provisionally assessed under the tax law.

Section 34(1)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1922 applies only where income has in fact escaped assessment. A notice issued to tax the same share income that had already been provisionally assessed under section 23B(2) could not be sustained because that provisional assessment remained effective until replaced by a regular assessment, and there was no finding of any additional escaped income. On that reasoning, section 34(1)(a) was held inapplicable to the already assessed income.

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Issues: Whether notice under section 34(1)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1922 was validly issued when the assessees' share income had already been provisionally assessed under section 23B.

Analysis: Section 34 applies only where income has escaped assessment wholly or in part. The assessees had been provisionally assessed on their share income under section 23B(2), and that assessment remained effective until displaced by a regular assessment. Since the proceeding under section 34(1)(a) was initiated only to tax the same share income already covered by the provisional assessment, and there was no finding that any additional income had escaped assessment, the prerequisite for invoking section 34(1)(a) was absent.

Conclusion: The notice under section 34(1)(a) was not validly issued. The answer is in favour of the assessees and against the department.

Ratio Decidendi: A notice under section 34(1)(a) can be sustained only if some income has in fact escaped assessment; where the same income has already been provisionally assessed under section 23B, section 34(1)(a) is not attracted.

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