1980 (9) TMI 29

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....s is common and the facts also, with slight variation, are similar. The question referred to us by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Indore Bench, Indore, is as follows: " Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in law in holding that the assessee had reasonable cause for the late filing of the return and, consequently, in maintaining the order of cancellation of the penalty of Rs. 1,009 levied under section 271(1)(a) of the Income-tax Act ? " In the connected cases the amounts of penalties levied by the ITO and cancelled by the AAC and the Appellate Tribunal are different but this will not affect the answer to the question referred to us for opinion. Facts in this case as st....

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....n the firm, we are not inclined to interfere in this appeal. " The Appellate Tribunal, besides Baijnath's case [1976] 102 ITR 551, referred to Venkateshwara Power Rolling Mills v. CIT [1974] 97 ITR 168 (MYS). In the connected cases (M.C.Cs. Nos. 52 to 55 of 1979), there was one additional circumstance. The assessee in those cases had applied for extension of time for filing the return on the ground that the accounts of the firm of which they were partners had not been completed and, therefore, they were unable to ascertain their income and file the return in time. The facts stated by the Tribunal clearly indicate that the Tribunal had recorded a finding of fact in all the above cases to the effect that there was reasonable cause on....

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....f fact and no principle of law was applicable in answering this question. We may reproduce the relevant portion. "If it is held by these authorities that such failure was for reasonable cause, then no question of imposition of penalty would arise. However, the question whether such failure was without reasonable cause or not, is essentially one of fact, which it is for the departmental authorities to decide. Unless the decision of this question requires the application of any principle of law, the same would remain a question of fact. On the facts and in the circumstances of this case, no principle of law required application for deciding whether the assessee's failure to furnish the return was 'without reasonable cause' or not. Accordin....