income tax return

Only facts of the case can decide.

It is absolutely illegal & improper  to forge another's signature in the I.T.Return.  So far as the wife does not disown the return and accepts the information furnished therein, not much cognisance is taken about forgery.  Otherwise the husband can be hauled up for forgery.  But for prosecution it should be established that the forgery was by the husband only.  To include wife into the forgery aspect she must be aware of her husband's conduct and that should be established.  Only then  the prosecutions will be successful.

T.V.VENKATAMAN

 Since she has not verified and filed the return herself, it is clear that she was a party to the forgery.  There is no provision in income tax act whereby another person can verify somebody else's return except under Power of Attorney but with POA he will put his own signature not that of his wife. She has taxable income and cannot claim that the return is valid return. In fact it should be treated as no return at all and she not having filed her return for the relevant year. The beauty is that ITO has accepted the return, assessed her and gave her refund. How then it can be claimed that she is not a party to the forgery. Another beauty is that when forgery was pointed out to the department, it chose to keep mum. Guess why?

it is illegal to forge another signature & it is punishable under IPC

 Yes. That is the law. But law is subservient to corruption. The ITO does not see anything wrong in it and provides protection.

gud replied by Venkatram and aggarwal.

 The problem is that in the discussion under the Lawsclubindia, we mostly talk of law. Once Kapil Sibbal once said in a TV interview that law is an ass. But we have to endure the system. The CJI has now openly started talking of corruption in judiciary, an unheard of remark a couple of years ago.

Dear Anil Ji, If the ITO does not act in this matter even after bringing facts to his notice, it is a clear case of deliriction of duty on his part and he is liable to be proceeded against by departmental vigilance authorities as well as CVC and CBI. Please make a formal complaint to these authorities. At least, in theory and on the face of it, nobody is above law.

 Did everything. Nothing happened. They all are in it.

Dear Anilji, Please send me the actual facts of the case as private message. May be I will be able to help you.

There are few questions:

1. Whether refund has been fraudulantly obtained i.e. without paying excess tax.

2. Has the wife disowned return purportedly signed by her husband?

 Refund came rather was managed through touts and brokers.

Why should wife disown the signature? It was forged by her husband and the income tax department is sitting quietly over it? Reason? Corruption.

It is not correct to blame everything and everyone under singe generic menace "CORRUPTION". From the brief facts it appears to be a case of small refund and so many authorities cannot be bribed for such a small matter. Thus it is more of technical interest

My learned friends please advise:

1. How a document becomes illegal if the person purported to have signed it does not dispute the same and in fact accepts it as if signed by her.

2. Where is fraud in so far as the person (in this case wife) gets its legal dues.

3. How the authorities will verify the fact that Husband has forged the signature until there is a specific complaint or denial from the person whose signatures are claimed to be forged.

4. Where does corruption arise if a person gets its bonafide dues? in fact we all blame corruption for non receipt of refund.

It appears that the vigilance authorities might have taken into consideration while deciding upon the complaint.

 Dear Sir,

 No further comments. Individual perceptions may differ.