The Assessing Officer who initially assessed the income has jurisdiction to reopen or reassess the income unless the case is transferred to another Assessing Officer under Section 127 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

, J.

1. The petitioner retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Army on August 31, 1990. At the time of retirement, he was posted at Pune in the State of Maharashtra. For the assessment year 1988-89 corresponding to the accounting year 1987-88, when the petitioner was stationed at Pune, the petitioner filed a return of his income with the Income-tax Officer, GHQ Ward 4(3), Pune, and a copy of the same is annexure P-1 with the writ petition. The assessment for the year in question was completed by the Income-tax Officer, Pune, under Section 143(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (for short, "the Act"), on the returned income. The order of assessment dated March 30, 1989, (annexure P-3 with the writ petition), was communicated to the petitioner and a copy thereof was also sent to the Army authorities at Pune for debiting the sum of Rs. 2,771 to the account of the petitioner which was found payable in terms of the assessment order. It is not in dispute before us that this amount has since been debited/ paid by the petitioner.

2. After his retirement from the Army, the petitioner shifted to Jalandhar in the State of Punjab and settled there. It appears that on the basis of some complaints received from the father of the son-in-law of the petitioner, the Income-tax Officer, Jalandhar, respondent No. 2, issued a notice dated March 13, 1995, to the petitioner under Section 148 of the Act informing the latter that the former had reason to believe that the income of the petitioner for the assessment year 1988-89 had escaped assessment within the meaning of Section 147 of the Act and, therefore, the petitioner was required to file a return of his income for the said assessment year within 30 days from the date of service of the notice. The petitioner filed the same return of income which he had filed before the Income-tax Officer, Pune, with a note thereon that the assessment proceedings for the relevant assessment year had already been completed by the Income-tax Officer, Pune, and that the tax found payable by the petitioner had been paid. It was also submitted that the notice issued by the respondent was time barred and that he had no jurisdiction to proceed in the matter. It was also stated that the proceedings had been initiated at the instance of the father of the son-in-law only with a view to harass the petitioner. The petitioner stated before us that there were some matrimonial disputes between his daughter and her husband and it was on account of those disputes that the father of the son-in-law had filed a complaint with the income-tax authorities on account of which they were harassing the petitioner. The aforesaid notice issued under Section 148 of the Act has been impugned by the petitioner in the present petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, inter alia, on the ground that the Income-tax Officer, Jalandhar, who has initiated the reassessment proceedings has no jurisdiction in the matter. It is also alleged in the petition that the proceedings have been initiated by the income-tax authorities only to harass the petitioner at the instance of the father of his son-in-law.

3. While issuing notice of motion, this court stayed further proceedings before the Income-tax Officer, Jalandhar (respondent 2). In the written statement filed on behalf of the respondents, a preliminary objection has been taken to the effect that the petition is directed against the notice issued under Section 148 of the Act and since no adverse order has yet been passed against the petitioner, the petition is premature and the same deserves to be dismissed. Mr. R.P. Sawhney, appearing on behalf of the respondents, also submitted during the course of arguments that the petitioner should be directed to raise all the pleas before the Income-tax Officer. It is also pleaded in the written statement that the Income-tax Officer, Jalandhar, has the jurisdiction to deal with the matter and that the jurisdiction of the Income-tax Officer, Pune, c