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Judgment
Rajagopalan, J.—Each of the petitioners held ten shares in Gannon, Dunkerley & Co, Ltd., Bombay. Each of them obtained a further 80
shares when bonus shares were issued by the company in 1948. They disclosed in their returns for the assessment year 1950-51 the dividend
income on those 90 shares. The books of the company showed that each of them had in addition 1260 shares registered in his name. The claim of
the petitioners was that these snares were in their names as the nominees of one of the controlling shareholders of that company. viz, M. R.
Morarka.
Proceedings were taken against Gannon Dunkerley & Co., hereinafter referred to as the ""company"" u/s 23-A of the Income Tax Act. which
resulted in an order dated 11-3-1955. On an apportionment of those undisbursed profits each of the petitioners was liable to treat as part of his
income, assessable in the year of assessment 1950-51 a sum of Rs. 16,411 (the dividend on 1350 shares) and pay incometax on that basis u/s 23-
A. Notices were issued to the petitioners u/s 34 of the Act on 23-3-1955, and they were asked to show cause against revised assessment for the
assessment year 1950-51.
Each of the petitioners applied under Article 236 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of prohibition, to restrain the departmental authorities
from taking any further proceedings to assess the petitioners u/s 34. Though an interim stay of further proceedings was first granted, those orders
were modified to permit the department to complete the assessment within the period of limitation prescribed by Section 34 of the Act.
The learned counsel for the respondents, the departmental authorities, then represented that completion of the assessment during the pendency of
the proceedings in this court under Article 226 would not be pleaded in bar of the investigation of the alleged invalidity of the initiation of
proceedings u/s 34 of the Act with the notices dated 23-3-1955.
The contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioners were :
(i) Section 23-A was ultra vires and was beyond the legislative competence of the legislature which enacted it.
(ii) Even if Section 23-A had been validly enacted it became void under Article 13 of the Constitution, an enforcement of those statutory provisions
would result in an infringement of the fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 14 and Article 19 of the Constitution.
(iii) Even if the provisions of Section 23-A were enforceable against the petitioners, Section 34 of the incometax Act would not be applicable, as
there was no escape of assessment in the assessment year in question within the meaning of Section 84.
(iv) Even if Section 34 was applicable, the bar of limitation imposed by it would invalidate the notices issued on 23-3-1955.
Before we deal with the question of legislative competence of the legislature to enact Section 23-A in the form in which it stood in the relevant
assessment year -- it was subsequently amended again -- it may be useful to set out how the problem of evasion of liability to incometax
particularly super-tax, with reference to undisbursed profits of a company, incorporated or otherwise, was tackled by the legislatures in America,
England and India.
In Simond''s Income Tax, 2nd Edn. Vol 3, page 341, the nature of the problem for the legislatures was set out :
Generally speaking, surtax is charged only on individuals, not on companies or other bodies corporate. Various devices have been adopted from
time to time to enable the individual to avoid surtax on his real total income or on a portion of it, and one method involved the formation of what is
popularly called a ""one-man company"".
The individual transferred his assets, in exchange for shares, to a limited company, specially registered for the purpose, which thereafter received
the income from the assets concerned. The individuals total income for tax purposes was then limited to the amount of the dividends distributed to
him as practically the only shareholder, which distribution was in his own control. The balance of the income, which was not so distributed,
remained with the company to form, in effect, a fund of savings accumulated from income which had not immediately attracted surtax.
Should the individual wish to avail himself of the use of any part of these savings he could effect this by borrowing from the company, any interest
payable by him going to swell the savings fund; and at any time the individual could acquire the whole balance of the fund in the character pf capital
by putting the company into liquidation.
The trouble, loss to the country''s exchequer, was the same whether the company was controlled by one man or by a numerically larger group of
persons, as distinct from the companies in which the public were substantially interested. In this class of controlled companies the company was a
juristic person distinct from the shareholders who were each a separate juristic entity. The liability to tax on income was not the only legal
obligation, to define and impose which legislatures and courts have been called upon in various countries to look at the human individuals covered
by the mask of a juristic person like the company.
Friedmann has discussed some aspects of this problem in his ""Legal Theory"", 3rd Edn. page 400, We are however concerned now only with
the case, in which the device of a corporate personality is used for evasion of tax obligations.
The levy of Federal incometax in the United states of America was put beyond the pale of constitution controversy by the 16th Amendment to
the Constitution effected in 1913. The present position in America, in relation to undisbursed profits of controlled companies, was summed up by
Crown in his treatise ""The Constitution and what it means today"" at page 213:
Congress may, in order to compel corporations to distribute their profits and thereby render them taxable in the hands of stockholders, levy a
special tax on such accumulated profits in the hands of the corporation, without transcending its powers under the 16th Amendment, or violating
the 6th Amendment.
The same position was explained by Mertens in his ""The Law of Federal Income Taxation"", Vol. 7, at page 325:
The Code imposes a High surtax, in addition all other taxes under Chapter 1 of the Code, upon corporations which are ''formed or availed of for
the purpose of preventing the imposition of the surtax upon its shareholders or the ''shareholders of any other corporation, through the medium of
permitting earnings or profits to accumulate instead of being divided or distributed''... The surtax applies whether the avoidance was accomplished
through the formation or use of any one corporation or a chain of corporations.
A detailed history of the legislative measures in America is furnished by Mertens at pages 328 to 336 of his book cited above. We shall set out
some extract from that passage:
Congress recognised at the very .beginning that the corporate form of doing business and holding property, especially in closed corporations,
might be used as a device to evade individual sur tax. It inserted, therefore, in the 1913 Act, a provision designed to prevent corporations from
accumulating a ''surplus beyond the reasonable requirements of the business. That Act and the 1916 Act provided for including in the income of the
stockholder the share or corporate gains or profits to which the shareholder would have been entitled, if there had been a division or distribution
.... the statute in such a case was designed to look . through the corporate entity.
In 1921 Congress, fearful that the whole penalty section might be held invalid, abandoned the idea of taxing the shareholders and introduced the
presently operative notion of a penalty tax against corporations. The 1921 Act was the first Act to impose a separate penalty on the corporation;
here the corporate entity was not ignored, but an additional tax burden was placed upon corporation..:...
The learned author then referred to the change effected by the 1924 Act.
Furthermore, it offered an alternative remedy, viz, the shareholders could agree with the commissioner that tax could be levied on their distributive
shares as if there were no corporation but rather a partnership or personal Service corporation, and in that event there was no tax upon the
corporation as such.
After setting out the subsequent legislative history, the author recorded at page 335 :
''''The 1938 Act, which enacted what is substantially the present Code Provision, continued the policy of levying a special tax on corporations
''formed or availed of for the purpose of preventing the imposition of the surtax upon its shareholders or the shareholders of any other corporation.
One of the changes effected by the 1938 Act was : It was provided that the earnings or profits are accumulated beyond the reasonable needs
of the business shall be determinative of the purpose to avoid surtax unless the corporation by the clear preponderance of the evidence shall prove
to the contrary.
The position in England was summed up in Simon''s Income Tax. 2nd Edn. Vol. 3 at page 341 :
With a view to preventing this avoidance Section 21 of P.A. 1922, now replaced by Section 245 of I.T.A., 1952, was enacted, attaching
supertax (later surtax) liability to such a company''s income, if a reasonable Dart of such income had not been distributed within a reasonable time.
The assessment to surtax is made on the member of the company (or members where more than one individual is concerned) ''in the name of the
company'', and in a sum equal to the appropriate part of the company''s income of the year in question attributable to each member, after
deducting amounts already distributed to him. For computing the rate of surtax to be charged, the amount so apportioned to each member is
deemed to be the highest part of his total income.
The tax is payable by the company, except in so far as the members elect to pay, but if the company defaults, the tax is recoverable from the
members.
To the same effect were the observations of Singleton L.J. in Latilla v. Inland Revenue Commissioner, 1949-2 All ER 589 :
It is, I think, essential to bear in mind that one is not considering income which has been received, nor fax which has become due in respect of
income received, by a tax-payer, The Finance Act, 1922, Section 21 initiated a scheme of taxing a private company which did not distribute what
was considered to be a reasonable sufficient proportion of its income. One arrived at the amount of the tax by reference to the total income of the
member .... and the apportioned income was to be deemed to be the highest part of the income, thus attracting the highest rate of tax, but the
liability to pay the tax was placed on the company, and is still on the company.
The change made by the Finance Act, 1936, Section 19(5), was to provide that, if the company did not discharge its debt or liability, the tax is to
be recoverable from the member. The tax was, and is, payable by the company. It is a tax on the company. It is only if it is not paid by the
company within the time specified that it becomes recoverable from the member.
The Legislature in India took steps later than the parliament in England to meet this kind of possible evasion of tax liability. Section 23-A was
included in the Indian income tax Act by the Amending Act XXI of 1630. As enacted in 1930, the relevant portions of Clauses (1) and (2) of
Section 23-A ran :
(1) Where the Incometax Officer is satisfied that any firm or other association of individuals carrying on any business, other than a Hindu
undivided family or a company, is under the control of one member thereof, and that such firm or association has been formed or is being used for
the purpose of evading or reducing the liability to tax of any member thereof, he may, with the previous approval of the. Assistant Commissioner,
pass an order that the sum payable as incometax by the firm or association shall not be determined, and thereupon the share of each member in the
profits and gains of the firm or association shall be included in his total income for the purpose of his assessment thereon.
(2) Where the Incometax Officer is. satisfied that a company under the control of not more than five of its members and that its profits and gains
are allowed to accumulate beyond its reasonable needs, ...... without being distributed to the members, or that a reasonable part of its profits and
gains, .... has not been distributed to its members in such manner as to render the amount distributed liable to be included in their total Income, and
that such accumulation or failure to distribute is for the purpose of preventing the imposition of tax upon any of the members in respect of their
shares in the profits and gain so. accumulated or not distributed, the Incometax Officer may .... pass an order that the sum payable as incometax by
the company shall not be determined, and thereupon the proportionate share of each member in the profits and gains of the company, whether
such profits and gains have been distributed to the members or not, shall be included in the total income of such member for the purpose of his
assessment thereon.
The proviso to Section 23-A(2) excluded companies in which the public were substantially interested.
Act VII of 1939 substituted Clause (1) of Section 23-A as amended for Clauses (1) and (2) of the old Section 23-A enacted in 1930. The
relevant portion of Sub-section (1) of Section 23-A, as enacted in 1939 ran:
Where the Incometax Officer is satisfied that in respect of any previous year the profits and gains distributed as dividends by any company upto
the end of the 6th month after its accounts for that previous year are laid before the company, in general meeting are less than sixty per cent of the
assessable income of the company of that previous year he shall .... make .... an order in writing that the undistributed portion of the assessable
income of the company, of that previous year as computed for incometax purposes ...... shall be deemed to have been distributed as dividends
amongst the shareholders as at the date of the general meeting aforesaid, and thereupon the proportionate share thereof of each shareholder shall
be included in the total income of such shareholder for the purpose of assessing his total income."" The proviso to the amended Clause (1) of
Section 23-A excluded companies in which the public were substantially interested.
It was Section 23-A(1) as enacted by Act VII of 1939. that applied to the petitioners in the relevant assessment year. The position u/s 23-A
(1) as it stood before it was amended again in 1955, was summed up by Kanga in his treatise on Income Tax, 3rd Edn. page 689 :
Where the whole or a portion of a company''s net income of the previous year was not distributed as dividends, the Incometax Officer was bound
in the circumstances specified in the section to make an order in writing that the undistributed Income of the company should be deemed to have
been distributed amongst the shareholders, and thereupon the proportionate share thereof of each share-holder for the purpose of assessing his
total income.
The Income Tax Officer had to apportion the undistributed profit among the shareholders who would have received it, and in the proportions in
which they would have received it, if the whole amount had been distributed by the company by way of dividend in accordance with the rights of
the members as defined in the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the company.
Thus this section in effect created fictional or notional dividend income which was not in fact received by the shareholder. The notional dividend
was deemed to have been distributed as on the date on which the accounts of the previous year were laid before the company in general meeting.
An order made under this section was not itself an order of assessment. It had to be followed by an assessment on the shareholder either u/s 23
or u/s 34 before the shareholder could be held liable to pay tax in respect of the notional dividend income.''''
Section 23-A was recast by the Finance Act of 1935. The relevant portion of Clause (1) now runs:
....Where the incometax Officer is satisfied that in respect of any previous year the profits and gains distributed as dividends by any company
within the twelve months immediately following the expiry of that previous year are less than sixty per cent of the total income of the company of
that previous year ...... the Incometax Officer shall ...... make an order in writing that the company shall, apart from the sum determined as payable
by it on the basis of the assessment u/s 23, be liable to pay supertax at the rate of four annas in the rupee on the undistributed balance of the total
income of the previous year....
The proviso to Section 23-A(1) as amended in 1939 was replaced by a new clause in 1955. Section 23-A (9) ran:
Nothing contained in this section shall apply to any company in which the public are substantially interested....
The most noticeable change effected by the 1955 amendment was pointed out by Kanga at page 688 :
Formerly the operation of this section resulted in the levy of tax on the shareholders by the inclusion of the notional dividend (which was in fact not
distributed by the company) in their total income; now the levy is on the company alone which has to pay additional supertax at a flat rate of four
annas in the rupee on the undistributed profits.
Undistributed profits of a company are still its profits. They constitute the income of the company. Until the company declares a dividend, no
portion of those profits can become the income of the shareholder. In England or in India the position is the same. The shareholder cannot compel
the company by any process of law to declare a dividend. What Section 23-A did before it was amended in 1955 was to create a legal fiction,
Stone C.J. in S. C. CAMBATTA Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, BOMBAY., .
.... looking at the scheme of the Act, Section 23-A is a procedural section and not a charging section. It creates a notional income, which is wholly
artificial, and which does not in fact exist in th3 pocket of any shareholder. Within the terms of that section this artificial income is to be deemed to
have been distributed.... We are not dealing With anything concrete as no distribution has in fact taken place and no shareholder has in fact
received any, income.
Apart from the tax levied on the profits of a company, undisbursed profits of controlled companies have come in for a special levy of Income Tax.
The incidence of that tax was but incidental to that levy. In America the incidence first fell-on the shareholder. Subsequently the incidence was
shifted to the company. That was virtually the legislative pattern the Indian Legislature followed. Till 1955 the incidence was on the shareholder.
Now it is on the company.
In America for a time the shareholder could elect to bear the burden of the tax. That alternative has not so far been provided in the Indian Statutes
in that form. But it should be remember-ed that, though the incidence of the tax upto 1965 was on the shareholder, provision was made in Section
23-A (3) as it stood during that period for the collection of the tax from the company, if it could not be recovered from the shareholder. In England
the incidence of the tax was on the company. Now it falls upon the shareholder if the company fails to pay.
The question of legislative competence to enact such a legislative provision could not of course arise in England. The question in the form in
which it could arise in India, either under the Government of India Act, 1935, or under the Constitution, with their legislative lists, could not arise in
America either. But the 16th Amendment of the American Constitution still requires that the tax should be on income, which is what the relevant
entry in the legislative lists requires in India.
It is the validity, of Section 23-A as it was enacted in 1939, that is now in issue. The legislative power to enact that provision had to be
founded on entry 54 in List I of the 7th Schedule of the Government of India Act, 1935, ""Taxes on income other than agricultural income."" It
should, however, be remembered that what the legislature did in 1939 was to amend an existing provision of law and not to enact something
wholly new. The competence of the legislature that enacted Section 23-A in 1930 had to be tested with reference to the provisions of the
Government of India Act, 1919, The position under the Act of 1919 was summed up by Beaumont C.J. in THE PATIALA STATE BANK, IN
RE., :
I think that properly considered, incometax is a tax on a person in relation to his income. The tax is not imposed on income generally; it is imposed
on the income of a person, natural or artificial, as defined in Section 3. The assessment has to be made against a person and the tax has to be
collected from the assessee.... But in my opinion that does not mean that legislation as to Income Tax can never be regarded as legislation as to a
thing in British India within the meaning of Section 65 of the Government of India Act.
In my opinion, a tax on income accruing or arising or received in British India by a person resident outside British India, is legislation relating to
something, i.e., certain income in British India, and therefore to my mind, ""it falls within the very wide and general words of Section 65.
We can, however, well afford to exclude from further consideration this aspect of the case and to discuss the problem of legislative competence, as
if the power to enact Section 23-A in 1939 has to be tested with reference to the entry 54 in List I of the 7th schedule to the Government of India
Act, 1935.
In B.M. Amina Umma Vs. Income Tax Officer, Kozhikode, , the learned Judges quoted with approval the well settled rule of construction that
was explained by Chagla C.J. in Col. Sir J.N. Duggan and Another Vs. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, .
It is well settled by now that a large and liberal interpretation must be placed upon all entries in the 7th schedule of the Government of India Act,
and that the widest import and significance must be given to the language used by Parliament in these various entries. It must not be forgotten that
the legislature created by the Government of India Act was a sovereign legislature within its own sphere, and that, when a topic was assigned to a
particular legislature in respect of which it could legislate then all possible powers with regard to that topic must be attributed to that legislature."" ''
It was that principle that was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City,
. After referring to Crofi v. Dunphy, 1933 AC 156 : AIR 1933 PC 16 (G), and the observations of Gwyer C.J. in AIR 1939 1 (Federal Court)
Das J. (as he then was) observed :
It should be remembered that the problem before us is to construe a word appearing in entry 54 which is a head of legislative power. As pointed
out by Gwyer C.J. in the AIR 1941 16 (Federal Court) , none of the items in the List is to be read in a narrow or restricted sense and that each
general word should be held to extend to all ancillary or subsidiary"" matters which can fairly and reasonably be said to be comprehended in it.
It is therefore clear .... that in construing an entry in a List conferring legislative powers the widest possible construction according to their ordinary
meaning must be put, upon the words used therein.
The legislative practice that prevailed both in England and in India prior to 1939, sanctioned the concept of a notional income as the basis of
levy of tax on income. A controlled company''s undisbursed profits were treated for the purpose of tax as the income of the individual
shareholders. That concept was retained in Section 23-A as enacted in 1939.
We find it difficult to accept the contention, that entry 54 did not permit that continuance. That the legal fiction had been invoked earlier than 1935
both in England and in India is certainly a very relevant factor in determining what was the scope of entry 54, as Parliament envisaged it when it
enacted that provision in the Government of India Act, 1935.
To focus attention on the incidence of the tax for which also Section 23-A provided to the exclusion of the basis of taxation, can only tend to
cloud the issue of legislative competence, what was it that was taxed; undisbursed profits, tin-disbursed profits were undoubtedly income, a part
thereof.'' True it was the income of the company and it remained as part of the assets of company'' even after the taxing authorities has passed an
order u/s 23-A.
Except nationally, and then only for the purposes of the incidence of the tax, undisbursed pro fits did not become the income of the shareholders.
Nonetheless, the position remains that what was taxed, undisbursed profits, was income. The net profits of the company were subject to tax. A
provision for a further levy on undisbursed pro fits, which constituted a part of the net profits of the company would still be a statutory provision to
tax income.
Legislative power to provide for a further levy (on the same income, the income of the company, could not be denied. Whether the Constitutional
validity of such a levy could be challenged on other grounds would be a different problem. The expediency, of such an additional -levy is a
problem which the ''courts could not decide. So, what Section 23-A did was, in essence, to tax income, the income of the company.
Only, the incidence of that tax was not on the company in the first instance but on the shareholder, who had no doubt no legal right to get his share
of the undisbursed profits of the company. Had the legislature the competence in 1939 to provide for such an incidence would appear to be the
real question.
To what extent the incidence of the tax affects the question of legislative competence to levy the tax was discussed in a judgment of this court,
to which one of us was a party in B.M. Amina Umma Vs. Income Tax Officer, Kozhikode, . After referring to the observations of Viscount Finlay
in John Smith and Son v. Moore, 1921 12 Tax Cas 285 , the Judgment proceeded :
The passage brings out in sharp relief the basis of taxation and the incidence of the tax. The incidence of the tax whether it is the immediate and
apparent incidence, or whether it is the ultimate or real economic incidence, does not in our opinion limit, the taxing power given to the central
legislature by entry 54 of list I.
All that entry 54 requires is that the tax must be a tax on income other than agricultural income. The impugned provision, Section 16(3)(a)(ii) of the
incometax Act, provided only for a tax on income. It does not cease to be a tax on income either in form or in substance, though it provides for the
incidence of the tax not on the person whose Income is to be assessed to tax, but on another."" The contention, that such a provision was opposed
to the true concept of incometax, which was essentially a tax on the income of the person assessed, was specifically rejected -- see the
observations at page 145. Yet, that in substance was the plea of the learned counsel for the petitioners in this case also with reference to Section
23-A. u/s 23-A the tax was on the income of the company. The primary incidence of that tax was on the shareholders of the company. That did
not alter the nature of the tax. it was still a tax on income.
In Penang and General Investment Trust Ltd. v. Inland Revenue Commissioners, 1943 AC 486, Lord Macmillan pointed out that it was the
character of the distribution not its ultimate tax effect, that was referred to in the analogous English Section 21 of the Finance Act of 1922. In B.M.
Amina Umma Vs. Income Tax Officer, Kozhikode, , reference was also made to the observations of the Supreme Court in Commissioner of
Income Tax/excess Profits Tax, Bombay City Vs. Bhogilal Laherchand, .
The term ''deemed'' brings within the net of chargeability income not actually accruing but which is supposed notionally to have accrued. It
involves a number of concepts. . By statutory fiction income which can in no sense be said to accrue at all may be considered as so accruing.
Similarly the fiction may relate to the place, the person or be in respect of the year of taxability."" Legitimate fictions were thus well within the ambit
of the legislative power founded on entry 54 in List I.
We have already referred to the observations of Das J., in Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, where
he pointed out :
that the word income should be construed to extend the power to all ancillary or subsidiary matters which can fairly and reasonably be said to be
comprehended in it. The legislative measures designed to prevent evasion of a tax on income would thus be within the scope of the legislative
power to tax income.
It was in Eisner v. Macomber, (1919) 64 Law Ed. 621 (M), that Mr. Jagadish Iyer, learned counsel for the petitioners, relied to a considerable
extent to support his contention, that undisbursed profits in the hands of the company, of which the petitioners were shareholders did not become
income at all in the hands of the petitioners. He contended further that, if it was not the assessee''s income, the legislature could hot validly levy a
tax on that sum treating it as ""income"" within the scope of entry 54 In list I. The question for decision in (1919) 64 L Ed. 521 was formulated in
these words :
This case presents the question whether, by virtue of the 16th Amendment Congress has the power to tax, as income of the stockholder- .... a
stock dividend made lawfully and in good faith against profits accumulated by the corporation since March 1, 1913"".
That question was answered in the negative by Pitney J. on behalf of the majority of the Supreme Court. The ground on which that answer was
rested was that the stock dividend represented by the issue of stock certificates to the existing shareholders, was capital and not income. At page
633 the learned Judge observed:
The 16th Amendment applies to income only, and what is called stockholder''s share in the accumulated profits of the company is capital, not
income."" Earlier he had observed:
...... enrichment through increase in value of capital investment is not income in any proper meaning of the term.
In Commissioners of Inland Revenue v. Blott, 1931-2 AC 1,71 (N) an assessment to supertax under the Finance Act 1910 was made upon
the assessee for a certain year in respect of an allotment to him of bonus shares in the limited company. The House of Lords held by a majority that
for the purposes of the supertax the shares so allotted to the assessee could not be treated as part of his total income from all the sources for the
previous year within the meaning of Section 66, Sub-section (2) of that Act, inasmuch as they were not part of his income but were an addition to
his capital in that year.
The case, it should be remembered, was decided well before the English Parliament brought the undisbursed profits of controlled companies within
the net of taxation by the Finance Act of 1922. Learned - counsel for the petitioners referred to this decision in support of his contention, that un-
disbursed profits held by the company could not be treated as income of the shareholder within the meaning of the term ""income"" in entry 54. In
1921 2 AC 171, Viscount Haldane did not rest his decision On (1919) 64 L Ed 521. See his observations at page 188. Lord Cave, however,
observed:
In an American case (1919) 64 L Ed 521, a similar question arose for the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The question there
was, whether Congress had power under the 16th Amendment to the Constitution to tax as income of the stockholder and without apportionment
among the States a stock dividend made in good faith by a corporation; and the question was decided by a majority of the Court, in the negative.
The law there in question, no doubt, differs from ours; but the luminous reasoning of Pitney J. in that case is relevant to the question now under
consideration, and comp Clauses my assent.
Whether undisbursed profits of a company of a given year, and, a controlled company at that, could fall within the scope of the term ""income"",
and whether a proportionate share of those undisbursed profits, ascertained not by the company but by a taxing officer, could be treated notionally
by the legislature as the income of the shareholder, were not the questions that specifically arose for decision in (1919) 64 L Ed 521. No doubt
Pitney J. pointed out at page 533 :
.. ...the Government....insisted as an alternative that, by the true construction of the Act of 1916, the tax is imposed not upon the stock dividend,
but rather upon the stockholder''s share of the undivided profits previously accumulated by the corporation; the tax, being levied as a matter of
convenience at the time such profits become manifest through the stock dividend, if so-construed, would the act be constitutional?
The learned Judge continued:
That Congress has power to fax shareholders upon their property interests in the stock of corporations is beyond question; and that such interests
might be valued in view of the condition of the company, including its accumulated and undivided profits, is equally clear. But that this would be
taxation of property because of ownership, and hence would require apportionment under the provisions of the Constitution, is settled beyond per
adventure by previous decision of this Court.
After referring to Brainard v. Hubbard, (1871) 20 Law Ed 272, Pitney J. concluded with the passage extracted above, that what was called the
stockholder''s share in the accumulated profits of the company was capital and not income. The real question in (1919) 64 Law Ed 521, was
whether the distribution of stock certificates after the accumulated profits of the company had been capitalised could be treated as receipt of
income by tile shareholder. The real nature of such a stock dividend was explained by the learned Judge at page 530 :
A ''stock dividend'' shows that the company''s accumulated profits have been capitalised, instead of distributed to the stockholders or retained as
surplus available for distribution in money or in kind should opportunity offer. Far from being a realisation of profits of the stockholder, it tends
rather to postpone such realisation, in that the fund represented by the new stock has been transferred from the surplus to capital, and no longer is
available for actual distribution.
The essential and controlling fact is that the stockholder has received nothing out of the company''s assets for his separate use and benefit; on the
contrary, every dollar of his original investment together with whatever accretions and accumulations have resulted from employment of his money
and that of the other stockholders in the business of the company, still remains this property"" of the company and subject to business risks which
may result in wiping out of the entire investment. Having regard to the very truth of the matter, to substance, and not to form, he has received
nothing that answers the definition of income within the meaning of the 16th Amendment.
The learned counsel for the petitioners urged that the principle laid down by Pitney J. in (1919) of L Ed 521 should be extended to a case of
notional distribution of undisbursed profits without the issue of a stock certificate. He contended that the position of a shareholder should not be
worse if no scrip was issued- But this argument overlooks that the undisbursed profits, for taking which Section 23-A provided, did not constitute
capital accretions either in the hands of the company or notionally even with reference to the shareholder.
The learned Advocate urged that the basic principle that underlay the decision in (1919) 64 L Ed 621 that distribution of accumulated profits
of a company by the issue of stocks amongst its shareholders would only increase the value o� the capital of the shareholder and would not
represent a receipt of income by the shareholder of that company, could not apply to this country, in view of the decision of our Supreme Court in
Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, , where it was held that capital gains which became taxable u/s 12-B
of the Act also fell within the scope Of income in entry 54 of List I.
At page 837 (of SCR) : (at p. 61 of AIR) of the judgment of the Supreme Court, the learned Judge referred to (1919) 64 L Ed 521, as one of the
cases, which supported, the argument that a very wide meaning should be ascribed to the word income. No specific reference was made by the
learned Judge to the ultimate basis of the decision in (1919) 64 L Ed 521 that income did not include what was really an accretion to capital in the
hands of the shareholder. Whether a distribution of stock dividend would come within the scope of capital gains, with which Section 12-B of the
Act dealt, is not the question before us. We are concerned only with the undisbursed profits retained by the company in the hands, ''which neither
the taxing authorities nor the shareholder could compel the company by any process of law to distribute to the shareholders as dividend, such un-
disbursed profits constitute in fact the income of the company.
The learned Advocate-General pointed cut that even in America undisbursed profits of a company were taxed as income and the validity of
such a tax was sustained. (1871) 20 Law Ed 272 was one such case. There the tax was levied on the shareholder, and its validity was upheld. We
have pointed out that this case was referred to and explained in (1919) 64 Law Ed 621. Two other cases which the learned Advocate-General
referred to were Helvering v. National Grocery Co., (1938) 82 Law Ed 1346 and Halvering v. Northwest Steel Rolling Mills, (1940) 85 Law Ed
29.
In both these cases, however, the tax was levied on the corporation. In (1933) 82 Law Ed 1346, Brandes J. observed at pages 1352-53 :
It is said that the statute is unconstitutional because the liability imposed is not a tax upon income, but a penalty designed to force corporations to
distribute earnings in order to create a basis for taxation against the stockholders. If the business had been carried on by Kohl individually all the
years profits would have been taxable to him. If, having a partner, the business had been carried on as a partnership, all the year''s profits would
have been taxable to the partners individually although these had been retained by the partnership undistributed....Kohi, the sole owner of the
business, could not, by conducting it as a corporation, prevent Congress, if it chose to do so, from laying on him individually the tax on the year''s
profits. If it preferred, congress could lay the tax upon the corporation, as was done by Section 104. The penal nature of the imposition does not
prevent its being valid, as the tax was otherwise permissible under the Constitution.
The learned Advocate-General referred to cases where English Courts have upheld such a levy on undisbursed profits of controlled
companies. But then, they may not be of direct assistance to us in answering the question of legislative competence of the Indian legislature to enact
Section 23-A.
As we pointed out, undisbursed profits constituted income, and Section 23-A taxed that income. The machinery for taxing that income
involved the
creation of the legal fiction that the proportionate. share of those undisbursed profits was the Income of the shareholder. He was assessed on that
Income. The primary incidence of the tax was on the shareholder. Section 23-A(3) provided for an alternative incidence on the company itself.
Neither of those provisions for the incidence of the tax altered the nature of the tax. It was still a tax on income, and that was well within the scope
of entry M of List I of the 7th schedule of the Government of India Act B.M. Amina Umma Vs. Income Tax Officer, Kozhikode, is a direct
authority of this Court for the position, that the incidence of the tax does not limit the legislative power founded on entry 54.
Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar contended that the enactment of a legal fiction, to treat as income what was not income at all was a colourable exercise of
legislative power, which should be sufficient to invalidate Section 23-A. The scope of statutory fictions, within the legislative competence of the
legislature to enact in exercise of the powers founded on entry 64, was explained in Commissioner of Income Tax/excess Profits Tax, Bombay
City Vs. Bhogilal Laherchand, , and that was applied by this Court in B.M. Amina Umma Vs. Income Tax Officer, Kozhikode, .
With reference to Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, , on which the learned Advocate-General
relied, to support his contention, that legislation to prevent evasion of tax was within the ambit of the power to tax, and that it was ancillary to the
power to tax income, which entry 54 authorised. Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar contended, that that principle could not be invoked, if his contention was
accepted, that what Section 23-A taxed as the income of the assessee was not his income at all. Of course, under legislation authorised by entry
54 only income could be taxed. ''Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar urged that, if there was no liability because there was no income, no question of evasion of
liability could arise. This is only another aspect of the main argument of Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar, that the legislature had not the competence to tax in the
hands of the shareholder what had never in fact accrued to him, though what was taxed was income that had accrued to the company. That
contention we have already negatived.
Besides, the legal fiction enacted by Section 23-A does correspond to reality, if the veil of the legal personality of the corporate person, the
company, is pierced, in order to look at the real person behind that corporate personality. It should be remembered that Section 23-A deals with
controlled companies, as distinguished from companies in which the public have a substantial interest. In fact, in popular parlance, such companies
have come to be called ""Section 23-A companies"" even as in England they are known as ""Section 245 companies"". The extract from Simond''s
income tax, 2nd Edn. Vol. 3 page 341 which we have set out above explained the real possibilities of evasion by a person or group of persons by
resort to the device of a corporate personality.
The income does in reality belong to them, and is under their control all the time. The evasion of liability to supertax is equally real. That in such
companies there might be an individual member or two in a minority unable to force a factual distribution at any given point of time, cannot affect
the reality of the situation which Section E3-A was designed to meet. The basic assumption that underlies Section 23-A is the identity of the
''interests of the shareholders and the controlled company.
That assumption is founded on reality. The shareholder created a veil of a corporate personality as legally distinct from his juristic personality;
That was legal. The legislature countered that with a legal fiction. That was also legal. If both are forgotten the tax payer and the tax gatherer
proceed on the realities of the situation. The profits are taxed;
We should like to guard ourselves against being understood to imply that unless the statutory fiction also corresponds to reality -- it is almost a
self-contradicting statement -- the legal fiction would be beyond the legislative competence of the legislature to enact. We have referred to this
aspect, only to emphasise that the legal fiction enacted by Section 23-A was never Intended to be ''either harsh or unjust in its operation.
In this case of controlled companies accumulation of profits for the legitimate needs of this company should"" not be discouraged. But accumulation
for avoidance of tax liability had to be prevented. That was just what Section 23-A was designed to achieve. That in individual cases it may
operate harshly would not affect the main question at issue -- legislative competence.
We are of opinion, that Section 23-A was intra vires the legislature which enacted it in lg39, independent of the fact, that what the Legislature
did in 1939 was only to continue a legal fiction already in existence.
The next question is, did Section 23A fall under the ban of Article 13 of the Constitution?
Section 23-A as we have had occasion to point out already, is not a charging but procedural section of Act. An order passed u/s 23-A against
the company is not itself an order of assessment. It, however, defines also the liability of the shareholder of the company, and provides for an order
of assessment as against him. It is well-settled now, that the equal protection of laws"" in Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees applies to
substantive as well as to procedural laws.
The complaint of the petitioners was that Section 23-A was discriminatory in its effect and that as assessees u/s 23-A they are denied what the Act
accorded to others, including themselves, assessed under circumstances ether than those for which Section 23-A provided. Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar
pointed out that, while other assessees could claim a right of appeal against orders of assessment, the proviso to Section 30, Clause (1) of the Act
restricted the right of appeal of a shareholder assessed u/s 23-A and denied him a right to appeal against the order against the company, which
was the basis of the order of assessment against the shareholder.
The second feature which the learned counsel stressed was that, though the shareholder was the person on whom Section 23-A cast the primary
liability to pay the assessed tax, he was denied an opportunity to show cause against the order being passed against the company u/s 23-A.
Even at the outset we may observe that the apparent is not a real discrimination in this class of assessment u/s 23-A. We have already
adverted to the substantial identity of interest of the controlled company and its shareholders. The company is entitled to notice. It is entitled to
appeal against the order passed u/s 23-A. The provisions safeguard the interests of the shareholders as effectively, as provision for notice to the
shareholder and a right of appeal separately conferred upon him would have done.
Even if the form and not the substance alone that matters, the apparent discrimination is not, in our opinion, an unconstitutional discrimination.
The third proviso to Section 30(1) runs:
Provided further that a shareholder in a company in respect of which an order u/s 23-A has been passed by an Incometax Officer, may not in
respect of matters determined by such order, appeal against the assessment of his own total income.
The scope of the restricted right of appeal under this proviso was examined at length by Chagla C.J. and Tendolkar J. in Navinchandra Mafatlal
Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, . It should be needless to set out that discussion over again.
As the learned Advocate General pointed out, the effect of the third proviso to Section 30 (1) which precluded a shareholder from challenging
the correctness of the order against the company passed u/s 23-A on the basis of which he was eventually assessed, was to enact a conclusive
presumption, that the order against the company was correct in the appeal by the shareholder against his assessment.
The validity of such conclusive presumptions, as part of the procedural law, has been upheld by courts. That, however, still leaves the charge of
discrimination to be answered. Reasonable classification was the defence, and, in our opinion, that should prevail.
The controlled companies or as they are popularly known Section 23-A companies, constitute, a well-defined class. So do their shareholders.
The identity of interest between the company and its shareholders in that class is a well recognised reality. The object of Section 23-A is to prevent
evasion of tax liability, which the screen of corporate personality would have otherwise helped. The right of appeal conferred on the company is
virtually for the benefit of its shareholders.
That a further right of appeal is denied to each individual shareholder may not amount to a denial of an effective opportunity to correct by way of
appeal any error in an order passed u/s 23-A. The corporate personality of the company could be utilised, by the shareholder to exercise a real
right of appeal. The difficulties of permitting each of the shareholders to appeal against the order passed under S 23-A should be obvious.
The shareholders, even if they are few, may be scattered and an adjudication of the same question by different appellate authorities may, apart
from other inconveniences both to the authorities and the company lead to the grave inconvenience of conflicting decisions. The advantage of a
single appeal against on order passed u/s 23-A should be equally obvious.
The possibility of using the name of the company to avoid liability was removed. The possibility -- indeed it would normally be a reasonable
certainty -- of the use of the name of the company for protecting the interests of the shareholders was left intact. The classification of the
shareholders of the Section 23-A companies is valid and it is a just and reasonable relation to the object sought to be achieved by the impugned
legislative provision, Section 23-A,
What we have said about the restriction on the shareholders'' right of appeal will apply also to the absence of a provision for a notice to the
shareholder apart from the company before an order is passed u/s 23-A. The identity of interest runs through all the stages from that of
accumulation of undisbursed profits to that of final payment of tax either by the shareholder in his own name or in the name of the company under
Clause (3) of Section 23-A.
Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar complained that there was no specific provision for a shareholder to get his individual order of assessment corrected, if the
appeal against the order passed u/s 23-A preferred in the name of the company succeeded in whole or in part. That was an additional ground on
which he sought to sustain the charge of discrimination. The learned counsel apparently overlooked the specific provision made by the Act in
Section 35(7) for correction and rectification of such errors.
We have refrained from examining the position, whether even if the third proviso to Section 30 (1) was discriminatory and that that
discrimination was unconstitutional, that would affect the validity of the liability of the shareholder sanctioned by Section 23-A or whether the
validity of the proviso to Section 30(1) could alone be put In issue. We have held that the apparent discrimination is not real in any event, it is not
unconstitutional.
In our opinion, Section 23-A does not offend Article 14 of the Constitution.
On the'' assumption, that the levy of the tax on the shareholder u/s 23-A was illegal the petitioners at one stage pleaded that their fundamental
right guaranteed by Article 31 of the Constitution had been violated. Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar, learned counsel for the petitioners, realised he could not
sustain that plea, in view of the decision of Supreme Court in Laxmanappa Hanumantappa Jamkhandi Vs. The Union of India (UOI) and Another,
.
The next line of attack was that the fundamental right guaranteed by Article 19(1)(f) of the Constitution was violated by the illegal levy. The
learned counsel for the petitioners relied on Himmatlal Harilal Mehta Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others, . That decision is not an
authority for the position which the learned counsel put forward, that a tax levy is illegal if it constitutes an unreasonable restriction on the right of a
citizen to hold property, what was held in Himmatlal Harilal Mehta Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others, was that, if the levy was illegal,
a threat to collect such a tax would constitute a threat of infringement of the fundamental right to hold property.
We have held that Section 23-A was intra vires. The levy was not Illegal. We do not consider it necessary to express any final opinion on the
question; but the contention of the learned Advocate General that the reasonableness or otherwise of a taxing measure is not justifiable in courts
would appear to be well founded if the American authorities, referred to by Basu at page 135 in his Commentaries on the Constitution of India,
furnish an acceptable guide.
Adverting again to the absence of a provision for notices to the shareholders independent of the company before an order is passed against the
company u/s 23-A, learned counsel for the petitioners referred to a passage at page 685 in Rottschaefer on Constitutional law. The learned author
stated :
The due process clause of the 14th Amendment requires that a tax payer shall be given notice of, and an opportunity to be heard on, any matters
on which depend the validity, existence, and amount of any tax liability imposed upon him, except where the matter is one such that a hearing
thereon can have no effect upon the decision on any of these factors.
The limitations of an appeal to the doctrine of due process in considering the constitutional validity of statutory provisions in this country have
been explained by the Supreme Court. Independent of the authority of law which Article 265 of our constitution requires, there is no scope for the
application of the doctrine of due process as it is understood in America.
We are of opinion that Section 23-A does not infringe any fundamental right Of the petitioners and the ban imposed by Article 13 of the
Constitution does not apply. We do not consider it necessary to consider whether independent of the petitioner in W. P. No. 575 of 1955 the
petitioner (Mr. Spencer) in W. P. No. 574 of 1955 could invoke Art: 19(1)(f) of the Constitution.
The next question is whether Section 34 of the Act could apply to either of the petitioners.
We shall first set out the relevant dates. The account year of the petitioners ended on 31-3-1950 and the relevant assessment year ended on
31-3-1951. The undisbursed profits of the company were of the year ending with 31-3-1949; the corresponding assessment year was 1949-50
ending on 31-3-1950. The date of the meeting at which the-undisbursed profits were deemed to have been apportioned between the shareholders,
within the scope of Section 23-A was 23-12-1949.
That was the date on which the petitioners share of those undisbursed profits of the company . notionally accrued to them. That accrual could not
have been taken into account and was not taken into account when the petitioners'' assessment for the assessment year 1950-51 was completed
oh 28-2-1951. The order u/s 23-A was passed on 11-3-1955. Notices u/s 34 were issued to the petitioners on 23-3-1955. Neither of the
petitioners in fact received his proportionate share of the undisbursed profits.
But then, that is not relevant in determining their liability to be assessed under the procedure laid down by Section 23-A. Neither the assessing
authority who completed the assessment nor either of the petitioners was aware at any time before 28-2-1951 that any share of those undisbursed
profits of the company did accrue or could accrue to the petitioner as on 23-12-1949. The information was possible only after 11-3-1955.
The main contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners was that when there was In fact no income in the relevant accounting year, there
could be no -escape of income from assessment to attract Section 34 of the Act. A similar contention was negatived in Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs.
Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, . The learned Judges held that such a case would fall within the scope of Section 34(1) (b) of the
Act. Learned counsel for the petitioners , invited us to consider the question afresh and differ if need be from the learned Judges of the Bombay
High Court who decided Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, .
No doubt both the learned Judges who decided Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, expressed their
opinion, that the language of Section 34 would have to be strained to some extent to attract Section 34 to an assessment of a notional income of
the shareholder u/s 23-A. The observations of Chagla C.J. were at p 256 : (of ITR) (at p 554 of AIR) and those of Tendolkar J. were at page
267 (of ITR) : (at p 555 of AIR). With all respect to those judges . we do not consider it quite necessary to express any agreement of ourselves
with that view.
It is a realm of fiction we have to deal with, a valid legal fiction, but nonetheless a fiction. What are the limits of that fiction? Do they exclude the
application of Section 34? As a result of the fiction enacted by Section 23-A, the share income of the undisbursed profits of the company accrued
to the petitioners on 23-12-1949. That income was not , taxed In the hands of the petitioners in the assessment year 1950-51.
Learned counsel for the petitioners urged that the mere factum of non-assessment in 1950-51 was not enough to establish that there was an
escape of assessment in that year within the meaning of Section 34. He relied on the observations of their Lordships of the Privy Council in Sir
Rajendra Nath Mukerjee v. Commr. of Income Tax, (1934) 61 Ind App 10, AIR 1934 PC 30 .
Dealing with the argument, If an assessment is not made on income within the tax year then that income has escaped assessment within, the
year, and can be subsequently assessed only u/s 34 within this prescribed period of limitation, their Lordships observed:
This involves reading the expression has escaped assessment'' as equivalent to has not been assessed''. Their Lordships cannot assent to this
reading. It gives too narrow a meaning to the word ''assessment'' and too wide a meaning to the word ''escaped''.
The scope of these observations must of course be construed with reference to their context, which context should be clear from the succeeding
passage at p. 77 (of ITB) : (at p. 33 of AIR). Their Lordships point out :
To say that the income of Burn and Co, which in January 1928, was returned for assessment and which was accepted as correctly returned,
though it was erroneously included in the assessment of Martin and Co, has escaped assessment in 1927-28 seems to their Lordships an
inadmissible reading. The fact that Section 34 requires a notice to be served calling for a return of income which has escaped assessment strongly
suggests that income which has already been duly returned for assessment cannot be said to have escaped assessment within the statutory
meaning.
Their Lordships then recorded their approval of the dicta of Rankin C.J. in In Re: Lachhiram Basantlal, ""income has not escaped assessment if
there are pending at the time proceedings for we assessment of the assessees'' income which have not yet terminated in a final assessment thereof.
In the ease of the petitioners their share of the undisbursed profits was not disclosed in their returns for the assessment year 1950-51. The,
share of the petitioners in the undisbursed profits of the company of which they were shareholders was not, as we pointed out, in the contemplation
of anyone either of the petitioners or the assessing authority. In that respect the case of the petitioners certainly differed from that their Lordships
had to consider in Sir Rajendra Nath Mukerjee v. Commr. of Income Tax, (1934) 61 Ind App 10, AIR 1934 PC 30 .
The petitioners'' share of the undisbursed profits of the company was not disclosed and could not have been disclosed at any time before their
returns were accepted and the assessments were completed on 28-2-1951. It was not therefore a case which could fall within Section 34(1) (a).
There was no default on the part of the petitioners. They could not include in their returns what was not known to them at all.
But, the effect of the legal fiction enacted by Section 23-A was that the income in question accrued on 23-12-1949. It was a notional income. It
was a fictional income. But nonetheless the effect of the fiction was an accrual on 23-12-49. If there had been an accrual oh 23-12-1949, the
amount should have been assessed in the relevant assessment year. It was not assessed. The original assessment proceedings were not pending on
the date notice was issued u/s 34. It was therefore, in our opinion, a case of escaped assessment which fell within the scope of Section 34(1)(b).
The learned Advocate ''General invited our attention to the observations of Jagannadhadas J. in Chatturam Horilram Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of
Income Tax, Bihar and Orissa, . Commenting on the statutory provision that the Indian Finance Act of 1939 shall be deemed to have come, into-
force in the area to which this Regulation extends on the 30th day of March 1939, the learned Judge observed :
By virtue of this deeming provision the Indian Finance Act of 1939 must be assumed even factually to have come into operation on the date
specified and the tax must be taken to have become chargeable in that very year, though the actual liability for payment could not ''arise until
proper and valid steps are taken for quantification of the tax.
The learned Advocate General urged that the principle laid down in that case that by fiction the law existed during the relevant period though it was
in fact enacted later could be extended to the fiction enacted by Section 23-A that income accrued in the case of the petitioners on 23-12-1949
though the fact was ascertained only after 11-3-1955. We accept the contention of the learned Advocate General. We have already referred to
the fairly extensive limits of legally permissible fictions indicated by the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Income Tax/excess Profits Tax,
Bombay City Vs. Bhogilal Laherchand, .
Suppose in fact the Income had accrued to the petitioners on 23-12-1949 and suppose that the petitioners came to know of that only on 11-
3-1955 it would have been a clear case of escape of assessment not within the scope of Section 34(1)(a) but within the scope of Section 34(1)(b).
That was the legal result of the fiction enacted by Section 23-A.
Mr. Jagadisa Aiyar next contended that recourse to Section 34 was not permissible, if-that was based on events that happened subsequent to
the assessment for 1850-51. The order u/s 23-A dated 11.3-1955 was, of course, long subsequent to the assessment year 1950-51. The learned
counsel referred to Anderson and Halstread Ltd. v Birrell, 1932 1 KB 271 , which was in its turn considered in Dodworth v. Dale, (1936) 20 Tax
Cas 285 and also to D and G. R. Rankine v. Com-missioner of Inland Revenue, (1952) 32 Tax Cas 520 In which both the earlier decisions were
noticed.
It may not be necessary to examine the scope of each of those decisions at this stage. The English cases were considered by the Supreme Court in
India United Mills Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of Excess Profits Tax, Bombay, . No doubt the learned Judges specifically stated at P. 29 (of ITR) �
(at p 84 of AIR) :
Whatever the position if the question were to arise under the Indian Incometax Act -- and there Is no need to express any final opinion on it --
having regard to the nature and scope of the provisions of. the Excess Profits Tax Act and in particular Section 26(3), we are of opinion that the
word ''discovers'' in Section 15 of the Act is of sufficient amplitude to take in subsequent events which have a material bearing on the facts and
circumstances on which assessment had been made or relief granted....
As a fact no doubt it was on the subsequent event, the order u/s 23-A dated 11-3-1955, that proceedings were Initiated u/s 34 against the
petitioners. But then, we have also to give effect to the legal notion enacted by Section 23-A. Once again we have to refer to that legal fiction
enacted by Section 23-A and we have to equate it to a factual accrual on 23-12-1949. In that sense, It was not a case of a subsequent event at
all.
We respectfully agree with the final conclusion of the learned Judges who decided Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax,
Bombay City, , and We hold that the claim of the department to reopen the assessment for 1050-51 in the case of the petitioners came within the
purview of Section 34 (1)(b) of the Act.
The last contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners was that in any event, the notice dated 23-3-1955 issued u/s 34 of the Act was
barred by limitation. The fallacy that underlay this plea was, that the period of four years for which Section 34(1) provided was computed by the
petitioners from'' 31-3-1950, the end of their year of account. The expression used in Section 34(1) (b) is ''escaped assessment for any year''.
It was a similar ''expression ''any year'' that was used in 6. 34(1)(a). The period of limitation, whether it is eight years for cases falling u/s 34 (1)(a)
or four years falling u/s 34(1)(b), has to be computed from the end of that year. Though the expression year has not been further denned by
Section 34 itself, it should be clear from the context to the section itself that the year referred to is the assessment year and has no reference to the
accounting year, which is Clauses where specified by the Act itself as the previous year.
In RM. P.R. Viswanathan Chettiar Vs. Commr. of Income Tax, Madras, it was assumed without any discussion that the period of four years
should be computed from the close of the year of assessment. Though that question was not specifically decided in that case, the assumption, in
our opinion, was correct. There can be an escape from assessment only when there is an assessment.
Whatever be the year of account, which Is the previous year as specified by the Act, the assessment can only been what Is normally referred to as
the assessment year, and which has been designated year in the Incometax Act. If the period of four years is computed from the end of the
assessment year 31-3-1951, as in our opinion it should be, that action taken on 23-3-1955 to issue notices u/s 34 against the petitioners was well
within the four years period of limitation prescribed by the section.
In Navinchandra Mafatlal Vs. Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City, , the learned Judges held that the period of limitation should be
computed from the end of the year in which the order is made against the company u/s 23-A of the Act. We consider it unnecessary in this case to
examine the correctness of that view. The alternatives which we have to choose in this case are the end of the accounting year and the end of the
assessment year;
It should be sufficient to .say that we are unable to find any basis in the language of Section 34, taking the scheme of assessment In the Incometax
Act, as a whole also Into account, to sustain the plea of the petitioners, that the period of limitation should be computed from the end of the
accounting year, of the assessee. We are clearly of opinion that the expression any year in Section 34 (1) (b) should be construed as the
assessment year. That suffices to reject the contention of the learned -counsel for the petitioners that the notices dated 23-3-1955 were issued
beyond the period of limitation prescribed by Section 34(1) of the Act.
The rule in each of the petitions is discharged, and we direct that the petitions be dismissed with costs.