Commissioner of Income-tax Vs. Shri Govindram Seksaria Charity Trust - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
- indian penal code, 1890.section 306 :[dalveer bhandari & harjit singh bedi,jj] abetment of suicide deceased, a married woman, committed suicide - allegation of abetment of suicide against appellant husband and in-laws - ocular evidence was sketchy - dying declaration recorded by tahsildar completely exonerated all accused in-laws of any misconduct dispelling any suspicion as to their involvement - letter of threat allegedly written by appellant to father of victim was concocted piece of evidence held, though presumption against appellant can be raised, it cannot be said that onus shifts exclusively and heavily on him to prove his innocence. conviction of appellant is liable to be set aside. - the commissioner of income-tax for the subsequent assessment year 1973-74 as well as for the assessment years 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78, on thescrutiny of the income-tax records noted that the assessee had advanced loans to four persons, as particularised.a.r. tiwari, j. 1. the applicant (the commissioner of income-tax) has filed this reference application under section 256(2) of the income-tax act, 1961, for opinion on the undernoted questions of law :'(1) whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case and on the basis of the material available on record, the tribunal was right in holding that the income-tax officer had granted exemption under section 11 to the assessee-trust after making thorough enquiries about the applicability of section 13(1)(c) with particular regard to the adequacy of the interest rate and the security in respect of the four loans ? (2) whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the tribunal was right in law in holding that no case was made out by the commissioner of income-tax for interference under section 263 of the income-tax act, 1961, and consequently in cancelling the impugned order under section 263 ?' 2. briefly stated, the facts of the case are that the assessee is a public charitable trust whose income had been treated as exempt under section 11 of the act and earlier under section 4(3) of the indian income-tax act, 1922, ever since the trust was created on july 14, 1945. in the assessment year 1973-74, according to the commissioner of income-tax, a net loss of rs. 12,690 was returned and accepted by the income-tax officer, vide his assessment order dated september 30, 1977, and a refund of rs. 8,872 representing the tax deducted at source was allowed to the assessee. the commissioner of income-tax for the subsequent assessment year 1973-74 as well as for the assessment years 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78, on thescrutiny of the income-tax records noted that the assessee had advanced loans to four persons, as particularised. it was found that those four persons were connected or related directly or indirectly with the authors of the trustees or the relatives of the trustees. the commissioner of income-tax, therefore, felt that the above debtors were persons to which provisions of section 13(3) were applicable. the commissioner of income-tax then invoked the provisions of section 263 and issued notices. the assessee contended that loans used to be advanced right from the beginning of the settlement of the trust and there was adequate security and adequate rate of interest. the commissioner of income-tax set aside the assessments made by the income-tax officer for the aforesaid four years. in appeals by the assessee, the tribunal reversed the order passed by the commissioner of income-tax and sustained the assessments made by the income-tax officer for all the four years and thus held that the assessee was entitled to get exemption under section 11 of the act. the revenue, therefore, filed applications, registered as nos. 8 to 11/ind of 1981 arising out of i.t.a. nos. 19 to 22/ind of 1980 for statement of the case and reference. the applications were dismissed by the tribunal on conclusion as under :'thus, on the facts and circumstances of the case no question of law could be said to arise out of the order of the tribunal as the finding given by the tribunal is based on the appreciation of evidence on record and the material available to the income-tax officer when he passed the assessment orders. in this respect, we seek support from the decision of their lordships of the madhya pradesh high court in s.m. trivedi v. cit (no. 1) : [1981]128itr265(mp) .'3. we have heard shri d.d. vyas, learned counsel for the applicant-department, and shri a.k. sethi, learned counsel for the non-applicant/ assessee.4. law is luculent. before entertaining the reference application at the instance of the parties, it is required to be shown that the questions arose out of the order passed by the tribunal and are questions of law. it is a pure question of finding of fact.5. the finding of fact, not shown to be perverse or perishable, reached by the tribunal did not give rise, as held in cit v. ashoka marketing ltd. : [1976]103itr543(sc) and cit v. kotrika venkataswamy and sons : [1971]79itr499(sc) , to any question of law.6. counsel for the applicant was unable to show any question of law.7. faced with the aforesaid situation, counsel for the applicant submitted that in annexure 'c' (order dated may 8, 1986, passed by the tribunal in i.t.a. no. 1555/ind of 1982--assessment year 1978-79) it is stated that the matter is pending before this court in some other reference application and as such this reference application may be disposed of with liberty to the tribunal to invoke section 254(2) of the income-tax act in case the aforesaid reference is answered in favour of the revenue and the answer requires action in conformity with that order. the aforesaid provision gives power to the tribunal to rectify any mistake within four years from the date of the order. this submission is not opposed by counsel for the non-applicant.8. in the result, we dismiss this reference application with liberty to the tribunal, as noted above. we, however, make no order as to costs.