( 1 ) THE Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi Bench b, New Delhi, hereafter "the Tribunal", has referred the following two questions for the opinion of this court :

"1. Whether, on the facts and circumstances of the case, the assessee could be said to have discharged its onus under the Explanation to. Section 271 (1 ) (c) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ?

( 2 )

Whether the Tribunal was justified and had material in deleting the penalty levied by the inspecting Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax under Section 271 (1) (c) read with the explanation thereto ?"

2. The reference relates to the assessment year 1966-67. The assessee ran a cold storage and ice factory at Moradabad. For the assessment year 1966-67 it filed its return on December 26, 1970, declaring a loss of Rs. 51,942. It was mentioned in the return that it was a duplicate return. According to the ITO there was no such previous return on record and it was only after the service of a notice under Section 142 on September 1, 1970, when the assessee was called upon to produce its account books on September 15, 1970, that the appellant filed the return on december 26, 1970. Even after the filing of the return several no