Judgment

GUPTA, J. :- These are four appeals by certificate from a common Judgment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad by which the High Court directed the appellant, Income-tax Officer, Income-tax-cum-Wealth Tax Circle II, Hyderabad to refrain from proceeding against the respondent under Section 147 (a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The appellant had served on the respondent, Nawab Sahib Mir Osman Alikhan Bahadur, H. E. H., the Nizam of Hyderabad, notices under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 stating that he had reasons to believe that income of the respondent chargeable to tax for the assessment years 1955-56, 1956-57, 1957-58 and 1958-59 had escaped assessment within the meaning of Section 147 of the Act and proposing to reassess the income for the said assessment years. The respondent challenged the validity of the proceedings under Section 147 sought to be initiated by filing four writ petitions in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad. The High Court by the impugned Judgment allowed all the four petitions and prevented the Income-tax Officer from proceeding further under Section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. In these appeals the appellant questio