( 1 ) THESE are eleven writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and a reference under Section 256 (1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 in respect of the assessment year 1946-47 and 10 years thereafter.

( 2 ). The writ petitions were filed to challenge the notices to the assessee issued by the Income Tax Officer under Section 148 as without jurisdiction and to have the reassessments made thereupon quashed. The reference was made by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (Delhi Bench b ) for answering the following question :

"whether the Tribunal on the facts and in the circumstances of the case is justified in law in holding that the re-assessment made by the Income-tax Officer under section 147 of the Act of 1961 were validly made and that the Appellate Assistant Commissioner was not justified in cancelling them for want of jurisdiction ?"

( 3 ). Shri B. N. Kirpal, learned counsel for the respondents, has raised a threshhold objection to the maintainability of the writ petition in view of the availability of alternative remedy and has therefore contended that all that we need to do is to answer the reference on the material contained in the Statement of