TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1924 (7) TMI 1
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....f he wanted it, or obtain information for himself from such materials as the assessee chose to produce on the appointed day. The assessee and their representatives attended with their books and the Income-tax Officer told them that the wastage which they were claiming to deduct from their gross returns was more than it ought to be, and more than it was in their other mill, or in previous years in this mill. It is obvious that if a person has once already been assessed in respect of the profits of a particular business, and the profits suddenly show a decrease resulting from the same bulk of material, something has happened to create a diminution of the profits; in that respect the onus is upon the assessee not as a matter of law, but as a m....
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.... of stating what had happened in the Court below; but the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, regarding the assessee as entitled to ordinary justice and the full hearing, which every litigant has a right to, sent the case back to the Income-tax Officer' to give the assessee the further opportunity which they desired. What precise opportunity they had been deprived of does not appear, but in fact a re-hearing took place before the Income-tax Officer. On that occasion they produced oral evidence including an expert,...... on whom they greatly relied, and generally directed their evidence, as they were entitled to do, to showing that in this mill wastage was high and the percentage claimed was instified. The Income-tax Officer, knowing t....
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....s worse than if he had never been called at all, and that this phenomenon was a new phenomenon in this particular year in this particular mill, and that it did not exist in the other mill of the assessee ; weighing all these various facts in the scale, he came to the conclusion that the fair thing to do was to assess them at the figure which he ultimately decided. He did not in fact require them by any notice in writing to produce further evidence on specified points and he did not in fact regard them as being in default so as to enable him to work sub-section (4), and he assessed them, after weighing all the evidence direct and indirect, under section 23(3). The above statement of facts though importing, as it necessarily must, the adverse....
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....lf make during the hearing of the appeal. It is deemed to be a judicial proceeding, and the Income-tax Officer has the same power as a court under the Civil Procedure Code when trying a suit to enforce the attendance of any person and to compel him to give evidence on oath, to compel the production of witnesses and of documents, and to examine witnesses on commission. So that he has all the powers of a Judge in a suit, so far as concern witnesses and documents. This gives him ample facilities for securing information and guidance from rivals in the trade of the assessee, or experts, or past employees, or managers, acquainted either with the particular business of the assessee, or the class of business in the neighbourhood-and no further pro....
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....hall be prepared to accept your claim of wastage, but before I do that I require you to produce further evidence about the machinery". He may then adjourn the enquiry, fix a fresh date, and in order to prevent mistake require by a fresh notice the assessee to produce other evidence on the specified point, namely on the defect which had appeared in the machinery, on such adjourned date. As my brother pointed out during the argument, sub-section (2) does not confine the Income-tax Officer to one notice, and such further notice if given would become a notice under subsection (2). The evidence, if produced, would be other evidence such as the Income-tax Officer has required on specified points, and having obtained it he can then assess under su....