Mr. Rachit purchased a new house and after some time he shifted to his new house. He was regularly filing his Income Tax Return but he did not…

According to section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, where any legislation or regulation requires any document to be served by post, then unless a different intention appears, the service shall be deemed to be effected by: (i) properly addressing (ii) pre-paying, and (iii) posting by registered post. Further, on the basis of decision taken by the apex court in case of Jagdish Singh vs Natthu Singh, where a notice is sent to the landlord by registered post and the same is returned by the tenant with an endorsement of refusal, it will be presumed that the notice has been served. In the given case, the Income Tax Department sent the show cause notice properly by a registered post at the address which was in the records of the department. Hence, it was a proper service of notice. Further, refusal by current owner of house to accept the notice, will not amount to- that the notice was not properly served by the Income Tax Department. It was the duty of Mr. Rachit to update his address. Therefore, Income Tax Department is correct in its decision.