1986 (2) TMI 99

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....,150. On the return of total income filed by the assessee, the ITO made an endorsement, inter alia to the following effect, initiating penalty proceedings under s. 273: "Issue notice under s. 274/273 for advance tax default." 3. In the show-cause notice under s. 274 r/w s. 273 issued by the ITO before imposing penalty he has referred to default committed by the assessee under s. 209A(1)(a) of the IT Act. In the first para of penalty order passed by him under s. 273, he has referred to the facts leading to the initiation of penalty proceedings thus: "Penalty proceedings for filing estimate of advance-tax which the assessee had reasons to believe to be untrue were initiated under s. 273 of the IT Act." Towards the end of the order....

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....passing of the order by the ITO are vague, full of contradictions and illegal. At the outset he submitted that initiation of penalty proceedings is vague in as much as under s. 273 penalty proceedings can be initiated for six different defaults but the ITO has not specified the particular sub-section or clause of s. 273 under which he had initiated proceedings. Then in the show-clause notice before imposition of penalty, the ITO has referred to the default under s. 209A(1)(a) which is for non-filing of the statement on advance-tax to be filed by the assessees of the basis of last assessed income. Then in the first paragraph of the penalty order, the ITO says that the estimate of advance-tax filed was false which is a contradiction to the sh....

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....hat there was non-filing of the estimate as well as filing of the estimate which, according to the ld. counsel for the assessee, in itself was a contradiction. An estimate could be false only if such an estimate was filed. If no estimate was filed, there was no question of its being false. According to ld. counsel for the assessee, therefore, the stand taken by the ld. departmental representative was a contradiction in itself. 5. We have given very careful consideration to the rival submissions. We have already reproduced above the facts as gathered from the orders of the ITO, the AAC and the pleadings made before us by the rival parties. We have in complete agreement with the reasons given by the ld. counsel for the assessee that the in....