ANIRUDDHA BOSE, J.

(1.) THE petitioners are a residuary non-banking company, and claims to be engaged in the business of offering small saving schemes to the public at large. In this writ petition, the petitioners challenge an order passed by the Settlement commission constituted under the provisions of Section 245b of the Income Tax act, 1961 rejecting the petitioners application for settlement. I sha, henceforth refer to this statute as "the Act". This order has been passed on 31st May 2007 but the petitioners claim to have received the order on 14th June 2007.

(2.) THE settlement application relates to three assessment years being 200405, 2005-06 and 2006-07. The petitioners had filed their return on income under the relevant provisions of the Act for the aforesaid three assessment years before the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax Circle 3, Calcutta, who is impleaded as the respondent no. 3 in this writ petition. The said respondent had issued notices under Section 142 (1) and 143 (2) of the Act to the petitioners, with a questionnaire as enclosure to such notice pertaining to the assessment year 2004-05. It appears that the petitioners had been filing replies in