Sec. 69 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Unexplained investment - The petitioner did communicate to the Department that he had no taxable income and therefore, there was no requirement to file the return. The AO did not carry out any further inquiry before issuing the impugned notice. What the AO aiming to do so is to carry out fishing inquiry. In fact, even when the assessee brought such facts and figures to his notice, the AO refused to look into it. High Court allowed the assessee’s writ petition holding that “The assessee not having filed return of income and consequently there being no scrutiny assessment, the AO would have much wider latitude to reopen the assessment. However, in such a case also, the primary requirement of the AO having a reason to believe that the income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment would apply”. SLP of the revenue dismissed. - ITO V/s MOHANLAL CHARMPALAL JAIN - [2019] 267 TAXMAN 391 (SC)