Commissioner Of Income-Tax, Delhi And Rajasthan v. The Mewar Textile Mills Ltd

COMMISSIONER 01' INCOME-TAX, DELHI AND RAJAS111AN TIU: :\1EWAR TEXTILE MILLS LTD. December 10, 1965 IK. ScHBA RAo. J.C. SHAH ANDS. M. S1KRI, JJ.] Income Tax Act, ( 11 vf 1922). s. 66( 1 )-Procedure for refertnce of queslions of law by J'ribunal to l/igh Court-At the instance of asJU.Stt Tribu11a/ an11exin1? frt•Jh dcx:111nenrs, not discussed, to statement of ca.tt-Propriety of. At the time of making an upplication lo the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal under s. 66( 1) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, to refer ce.W. questions of law to the High Court, the asse~sce filed certain document& as annexures to hi• application and the Tribunal attached these documeut& to the Statement of Case. There wa.• no mention of any of the documcol< either in the Appellate order of the Tribunal or in the body of the State-ment of Case. The High Court decided the questions referred to it ia favour of the asses5ec. On an appeal to thi' Court. HELD : (i) The case must be remanded to the High Coun a• the relevant facts were not clear, nor agreed upon by the parties. (ii) II is not consistent with the advisory juri5diction of a High Uiurt under the Act that the Appellate Tribunal should attach to the Statement of Case document•. other than the proceeding<; of the Income-tax autho-ritjes, which are not mentioned or discussed either in its own appellate order or in the Statement ot Case, If the High Court were to decide any di•pute concerning the interpretation of any such document, it would be deciding question• not decided by the Tribunal and which the High Courl is incompetent to decide under the A.ct [3 8 G, HJ CIVIL APPELI.ATF. JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 969 of 1964. Appeal from the judgment and order, dated March 21, 1963 of the Rajasthan High Court in D. B. Civil Income-tax Ref. No. 41 of 1960. A. V. Viswanatha Sastri, S. K. Aiyar, B. R. G. K. A char, and R. N. Sachthey, for the appellant. S. T. Desai, Z. S. Meeratival and Naunit Lal, for respondent. The Judgment of the Coun was delivered by Sikri, J. This appeal, by certificate granted under s. 66A(2) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1922, hereinafter referred to as the Act, read with s. 261 of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, a <lirected against the judgment of the Rajasthan High Court in a A consolidated reference made to it by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi Branch, under s. 66 (1) of the Act. This appeal relates to the assessment year 1943-44 and the relevant question with which we are concemed is as follows :- "Whether the profit on the amounts received by the B assessee's bankers in British India as price of goods sold by the assessee on railway receipts in the _names of the consignees or as price of goods delivered ex-godown Bhilwara was liable to tax under the Indian Income-Tax Act?" C This question was referred at the instance of the appellant and the item in dispute now before us is the item amounting to Rs. 2,73,488, which was held not liable to taxation by the Appellate Tribunal. The question which arises in this appeal is wltether the Tribunal was right. The first submission, however, of Mr. A. V. Viswanatha Sastri, the learned counsel for the D appellant, is that the High Court has not dealt with this question insofar as it relates to this sum. Mr. Desai, on the other hand, ·contends that the appellant has not appealed as far as this item is concerned; and, therefore, before we attempt to answer the question we must first see whether the appellant's appeal covers this item. E Mr. Desai refers us to the petition for leave to appeal to the Supl'C'"1e Court, filed in the High Court, and says that there is no express mention of the item of Rs. 2,73,488. He is right as far as this is concerned, but the appellant apparently felt it was not necessary to mention expressly this item. Mr. Sastri poin1!! to :r paras 12 and 13 of the petition which read as follows: