2000 (12) TMI 25

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....ed either wholly in favour of the assessee, or wholly against him when a relief sought by the assessee under section 273B of the Income-tax Act, 1961, is in respect of a penalty levied under section 272A, sub-section (2), clause (c) of the Act. Under section 272A of the Act, a person, who, inter alia, fails to furnish the returns or statements mentioned in that section will be liable to pay by ....

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....e notice to the petitioner for their failure to file the returns. For the period of the delay in filing the return, penalty was imposed by the Income-tax Officer in the sum of Rs.1,96,290. On a petition being filed by the petitioner before the Commissioner, the penalty was reduced by 50 per cent. The Commissioner's jurisdiction was invoked under section 264 of the Act. The assessment years w....

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....el for the petitioner submitted that the Commissioner has acted contrary to law in directing the assessee to pay penalty in an amount, which was one-half of the amount that had been levied by the Income-tax Officer. Counsel referred to section 273B of the Act, the marginal heading of which reads "penalty not to be imposed in certain cases". It, inter alia, provides that no penalty shall be imposab....

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....nce, no penalty would be leviable. However, in cases where the cause shown is such as to explain a part of the delay, or the cause shown is only to mitigate the gravity of the non-compliance, such a cause cannot be extrapolated and treated as being a good cause for the whole of the period of the delay in its entirety. All or nothing, the proposition canvassed by the petitioner would be detrimental....