Judgement

BHARGAVA, J.: These eighteen appeals have been filed by six persons, some of whom were partners in a firm called "The Lalitha Silk-Throwing Factory", some in another firm called "The Srinivasa Textiles", and some in both these firms. The appeals brought up to this Court under certificate granted by the High Court of Mysore are against the judgment of the High Court dismissing eighteen writ petitions by these six appellants praying for quashing notices issued by the Income-tax Officer, Bangalore, purporting to be under Section 155 of the Income-tax Act No. 43 of l961, proposing to rectify the assessments of the appellants in respect of the assessment years 1958-59,1959-60 and 1960-61. Thus, the notices challenged are three notices for each of these assessment years in respect of each of the six appellants, so that there were 18 petitions before the High Court. The High Court decided all the petitions by a common judgment and, consequently, in these appeals, all of them are being dealt with together.

2. During all these three assessment years 1958-59, 1959-60 and l960-61, both the firms filed Returns declaring themselves to be registered firms and also presented applications