Commissioner of Income Tax vs Bhagwati Debi Agarwalla

Sen, J.—The Tribunal has referred the following question of law to this Court u/s 256(1) of the income tax Act, 1961:

Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in upholding the Appellate Assistant Commissioner''s decision directing the income tax Officer to include in the relevant assessment for the assessment year 1972-73 only the assessee''s share of profit from the firm of Janata Medical Stores?

The assessment year involved is 1972-73.

The dispute is whether the AAC was right in directing the ITO to include in the relevant assessment year the assessee''s share of profit from the firm, Janata Medical Stores.

The Tribunal had noted that Janata Medical Stores had been granted registration for the assessment year 1970-71 and also for the assessment year 1972-73. The Tribunal held that the continuation of registration was almost a matter of course. The order which was initially granted for registration of the firm, was not challenged before us. It has not been stated by the revenue that order is under challenge in any other proceedings. It is also not the case of the revenue that the facts of the case this year were different from the facts of the earlier years.

In that view of the matter, the decision of the Tribunal in allowing the grant of registration of the firm as in the earlier years is reasonable.

The question, therefore, is answered in the affirmative and in favour of the assessee.

There will be no order as to costs.

Banerjee, J.

I agree.