1953 (4) TMI 25

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....GMENT Bhargava, J. This is a reference under Section 66(1) of the Income-tax Act in which the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal has referred the following two questions for our decision:- "(a) Whether the findings of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner in assessment proceedings are relevant for the purpose of deciding the penalty proceedings; and (b) If so, whether they operate as resj....

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....cealment of income and imposed the maximum penalty permissible under Section 28. The assessee appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and the Appellate Tribunal but failed and on his request the two questions mentioned above have now been referred for our decision. When the appeal was heard by the Tribunal, the Tribunal refused to allow the counsel for the assessee to argue the appeal ....

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.... assessment proceedings were available to him and he could certainly use those findings as materials for arriving at the findings in the penalty proceedings. There is nothing anywhere in any law laying down that such material is to be inadmissible in the penalty proceedings. This question must therefore, be answered in the affirmative. On the second question the principle has been so frequently....

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....hose cases. Apart from the question whether the Income-tax Officer is a Court or not, it is also clear that findings given during assessment proceedings cannot operate as res judicata in proceedings for imposition of penalty as the considerations that apply for giving a decision in the two proceedings are not identical. In the assessment proceedings, the Income-tax Officer, after hearing the....