Section 139(9)

Section 139(9) — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 139(9), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Mangalam Publications v CIT Supreme CourtHelps taxpayer
  You filed without books because they were seized. Is that a failure to disclose?
  Not where the primary facts were disclosed some other way. The duty to disclose does not extend beyond primary facts; once they are disclosed, the burden shifts to the officer to draw the right inferences. The reassessments were quashed.
• Kunal Structure (India) Pvt Ltd v Dy CIT High CourtHelps taxpayer
  My return was defective and I cured the defect ten months later. Does the s.143(2) clock run from the original filing or from the day I removed the defect?
  From the original filing. Where the defect is removed within the time the Assessing Officer allowed, the return relates back to the date on which it was originally furnished, and the six-month limitation for a s.143(2) notice is counted from the end of the financial year in which that original return was filed. On the facts the scrutiny notice was issued nearly a year after that period had run out and was held barred. The Revenue's special leave petition was dismissed.
• CIT v S.R. Batliboi & Associates High CourtHelps taxpayerHigh Courts differ
  The revised partnership deed was not filed with the return but was produced during the assessment. Does s.185 still disallow the partners' remuneration?
  No, on this judgment. The Calcutta High Court held that s.185 read with s.184, although worded in emphatic terms, is not intended to be mandatory. The Assessing Officer had refused to treat the return as defective under s.139(9); having refused that, he could not simultaneously hold the return to be in derogation of s.184(4) and disallow the deduction. The disallowance of Rs. 4,49,60,000 of partners' remuneration was deleted.
• Indglonal Investment & Finance Ltd v ITO High CourtCuts both waysValidity unconfirmed
  My client's assessment has become final and I now want the tax back because the levy was wrong. Can I run that argument as a refund claim, or in a writ petition based on Article 265?
  No. In a claim under Chapter XIX section 242 forbids the assessee from questioning the correctness of an assessment or other matter that has become final and conclusive, or asking for a review of it; the authorities cannot go behind the assessment order while examining a refund. Article 265 is not violated where tax has been collected under a valid enactment and the 'wrong' order has become final — the remedy is to attack the order itself, in appeal, revision or a writ, and refund follows only as a consequence of that.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.