1996 (7) TMI 3

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.... on appeal or revision may at any time within three years from the date of such order passed by him on appeal or in revision, and the Agricultural Income-tax Officer may at any time within three years from the date of any assessment or refund order passed by him, of his own motion, rectify any mistake apparent from the record of the appeal, revision, assessment or refund, as the case may be, and shall within the like period rectify any such mistake which has been brought to his notice by an assessee :...." The short question in this case is whether an Agricultural Income-tax Officer can rectify the order passed by his predecessor in office, on the ground that the assessment order was passed by wrongly construing section 12 of the Kerala ....

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....Income-tax Act. The question is whether section 12 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act must be interpreted in the manner in which this court has interpreted section 24 of the Indian Income-tax Act. This is not an easy question to answer. In fact, the learned single judge before whom this question was raised in the writ petition before the Kerala High Court referred the question to a larger Bench for decision. This very fact goes to show that this was not a rectifiable error apparent on the record of the case. The learned single judge of the Kerala High Court felt that the question should be examined by a larger Bench. Moreover, section 24 of the Indian Income-tax Act and section 12 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act are not ....