Service
224 Points
Joined August 2011
In my opinion penalty cannot be imposed by AO because:
The penalty proceedings for concealment of income must be initiated by issuing a show
cause notice by:
(a) the Assessing Officer before the completion of the assessment; or
(b) the first appellant authority before passing an order under section 250
(c) the Commissioner of Income Tax before passing the order under section 263.
Further, the assessment order itself must contain a direction for issuing a penalty notice u/s. 271(1)(c). Hence, check the assessment order whether it contains such direction or not. You can find some case laws where penalty proceedings u/s. 271(1)(c) were held as invalid as the direction in this regard was not present in Asmt. order.