S. Mohan, Officiating C. J.

All these writ petitions can be dealt with under a common judgment, since the prayer is one and the same, viz., for a declaration that section 44AB of the Income tax Act, 1961, which imposes audit of accounts of assessees by accountants alone and restraining the other authorised and qualified practitioners as unreasonable, discriminatory and unconstitutional. In all the cases, barring W. P. No. 10765 of 1989, the petitioners are income tax practitioners. The petitioner in W. P. No. 10765 of 1985 is an assessee.

It is enough if we refer to W. P. No. 3203 of 1985. The petitioner herein is an income tax practitioner. He has been so registered with the Commissioner of Income tax and, in the course of the exercise of his profession, he assists assessees in the preparation of accounts, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, statements and return of income to be filed before the income tax authorities. He has been carrying on his profession since 1976.

He is an authorised representative within the meaning of section 288(1) of the Act. The relevant clause applicable would be clause (vi) of sub section (2) which reads as follows :

"(vi) any person who has acquired such educational qualifications as the Board may prescribe for this purpose." *

Section 139 of the Act provides for filing a return. Sub section (9) read along with the Explanation says that the return of income shall be accompanied by statements relating to the computation of the income chargeable under various heads of accounts, computation of the gross total income and computation of the tax payable on the income returned.

As per rule 12A of the Rules, every authorised representative, before he makes an appearance before the Income tax Officer or after making such appearance, shall furnish to the officer :

(a) particulars of accounts, statements or other documents supplied to him by the assessee for the preparation of the return of income ; and

(b) if the authorised representative has for the purpose of the preparation of the return of income carried out any examination of such accounts, statements or documents, a report on the scope and results of such examination.

Therefore, as per the above provision, he is an authorised representative to what is commonly known as "audit".

The Finance Act, 1984, has introduced a new section 44AB which runs as follows :

"Audit of accounts of certain persons carrying on business or profession. Every person, (a) carrying on business shall, if his total sales, turnover or gross receipts, as the case may be, in business exceed or exceeds forty lakh rupees in any previous year or years relevant to the assessment year commencing on the lst day of April, 1985, or any subsequent assessment year ; or

(b) carrying on profession shall, if his gross receipts in profession exceed ten lakh rupees in any previous year or years relevant to the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1985, or any subsequent assessment year,

get his accounts of such previous year or years audited by an accountant before the specified date and obtain before that date the report of such audit in the prescribed form duly signed and verified by such accountant and setting forth such particulars as may be prescribed :

Provided that in a case where such person is required by or under any other law to get his accounts audited by an accountant, it shall be sufficient compliance with the provisions of this section if such person gets the accounts of such business or profession audited under such law before the specified date and obtains before that date the report of the audit as required under such other law and a further report in the form prescribed under this section.

Explanation. For the purposes of this section, (i) 'accountant' shall have the same meaning as in the Explanation below sub section (2) of section 288 ;

(ii) 'specified date', in relation to the accounts of the previous year or years relevant to an assessment year, means th