COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX, KARACHI vs PRINTERS COMBINE Ltd.
The Commissioner of Income-Tax sought leave to appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Sind, Karachi, which had answered two referred questions in the negative and decided the tax reference in favour of the respondent-assessee. The respondent, a private limited company, had filed income returns for the assessment years 1965-66 and 1966-67, wherein the Income-Tax Officer rejected the book version of accounts and enhanced the gross profit rate, a decision upheld by the Income-Tax Tribunal. The High Court, upon a reference under section 66(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1922, ruled in favour of the assessee. Before the Supreme Court, the petitioner contended that the questions decided by the High Court were purely questions of fact and that interference with concurrent factual findings was unwarranted. The Supreme Court found the contentions worthy of consideration and granted leave to appeal to examine whether a question of law arose from the matter.
- Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the proviso to section 13 of the Income-tax Act could be invoked?
- Whether there was any material on record for the basis adopted by the learned Tribunal for computing the income of the applicant?
- Whether the questions referred to the High Court were purely questions of fact barring interference against concurrent findings?
- Section 66(2), Income Tax Act 1922
- Section 13, Income Tax Act 1922
ORDER
S.A. NUSRAT, J.--The Commissioner of Income-Tax Central Zone has sought leave to appeal from the judgment of the High Court of Sind, Karachi dated 28-9-1983 whereby two questions referred to it under section 66(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1922, were answered in the negative and the reference was decided in favour of the respondent/ assessee.
2. The respondent, which is a private limited company, filed returns of income for the assessment years 1965-66 and 1966-67 declaring gross profit at the rates of 18% and 19$ respectively. The Income-Tax Officer found such declared gross profit rate to be low, rejected the book version and worked out profit at the rate of 25$ for both the years as according to him, their existed no co- relationship between the work done and goods supplied.
3. Aggrieved by the orders of assessment passed in respect of the two years under reference the respondent filed appeals before the Income-Tax Tribunal where, inter alia, rejection of accounts was also challenged. The appeals, however, were dismissed by the learned Tribunal by a consolidated order dated 17-7-1972 which led to the filing of two reference applications before the High Court. The following two questions of law were. Referred to the High Court for decision;
(1) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the proviso to section 13 of the Income-tax Act could be invoked?
(2) Whether there was any material on record for the basis adopted by the learned Tribunal for computing the income of the applicant?
The learned High Court as per impugned judgment allowed the references and both the questions were answered in favour of the respondent/ assessee.
4. It was contended by Mr. Shaikh Haider, learned counsel for the petitioner, that the questions referred to the High Court were purely one of fact and no question of law arose in the matter for determination by the learned High Court. No interference in the matter was, therefore, warranted by the High Court in view of concurrent findings of fact recorded by the Assessing Officer and the learned Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. The learned counsel invited our attention to the findings given by the Assessing Officer as well as the learned Tribunal.
5. The contentions raised above require consideration and leave is accordingly granted.