HON’BLE SUPREME COURT · SOURCE-REVIEWED NOTE
Commissioner of Income-tax, Delhi v. S. Teja Singh
Civil Appeal No. 122 of 1957
[1959] Supp. 1 SCR 394 ·
Income-tax Act 1922 sections 18A(3), 18A(9)(b), 22 and 28
Sources & disclosures includedDownload original judgment / order
3-judge bench · T. L. Venkatarama Aiyar · P. B. Gajendragadkar · A. K. Sarkar
Assessment years: 1948-49, 1949-50
01 · Facts of the case
A previously unassessed taxpayer filed voluntary returns but omitted the advance-tax estimate required by section 18A(3). The Tribunal and High Court held that penalty could not be imposed without a section 22 return notice.
Source: Primary report: SCR 395–398
02 · Discussion by the Hon’ble Court
Section 18A(9)(b) deemed failure to send the estimate a failure to furnish a return. Giving that fiction its necessary consequences included the notice and default needed for section 28 to operate. Requiring an actual return notice for an advance estimate would defeat the provision.
Source: Primary report: SCR 399–403
03 · Judicial decision
Income-tax authorities were competent to impose penalty under section 28 read with section 18A(9)(b) for failure to comply with section 18A(3).
Source: Primary report: SCR 403
04 · Outcome / in whose favour
The Revenue’s appeal was allowed, the High Court order set aside and the reference answered affirmatively, with costs here and below.
Source: Primary report: SCR 403–404
05 · AKHB REVIEW POINT
The decision concerns the historical statutory fiction and competence to impose penalty; it does not remove the statutory reasonable-cause qualification or authorize dispensing with notices generally.
Source: Primary report: SCR 396–401
Source & verification
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Statutory scope
Historical legislation expressly identified in this note. This is not a decision under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Income-tax Act, 2025. Verify enacted wording, commencement, transition and subsequent judicial treatment independently before modern reliance.
Later treatment
Source checked 2026-10-23. Subsequent treatment and present-law applicability have not been comprehensively checked.
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