1953 (8) TMI 21

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..... JUDGMENT The Judgment of the Court was delivered by RAJAGOPALAN, J.--The question referred under Section 66(1) of Act XI of 1922 for the decision of this Court was: "Whether in the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the assessee firm was bound to send to the Income-tax Officer an estimate of the tax payable by it before the 15th March, 1947, and pay the tax as required by Se....

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....ation was ordered on 15th November, 1947, on which date the assessment was also completed on the footing that it was a registered firm. At the same time, the Income-tax Officer issued a notice to the assessee firm calling upon it to show cause why penalty should not be imposed for contravening the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 18A of the Act. Eventually, a fine of Rs. 2,500 was imposed.....

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....is the partners of the registered firm that are liable to pay the income- tax, though, for the purpose of assessing the income-tax payable by the individual partners, the firm is the unit. The assessee as such, whether by the terms "assessee" we mean the registered firm or "the individual partners of the registered firm", was not really in existence on 15th March, 1947. It was not the liability of....

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....nstrued strictly as a penal clause. The assessee whether the registered firm or the individual members thereof really came to shoulder the liability to pay the assessed income-tax only on the date of the registration; and on 15th March, 1947, that liability could not have been enforced. If the unregistered firm was under a liability to disclose its income and provide for payment of the income-tax ....