COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX WEST BENGAL Vs. BRIJLAL LOHIA AND MAHABIR PRASAD KHEMKA EXECUTORS OF LATE KANAILAL LOHIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are appeals by special leave. The only question that arises for decision in these appeals is whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case the finding of the Tribunal that the gifts alleged to have been made by the assessee to his brother Briaj Lal Lohia and his nephew Nand Kishore Lohia are genuine gifts.

(2.) In these appeals we are concerned with the assessment of the assessee for the years 1947-48, 1948-49, 1949-1950, 1950-1951 and 1951 1952.

(3.) The assessee is an individual. On July 12, 1943, it is said the assessee made a gift of 5, 11, 101 to his brother Brijlal Lohia and another sum of Rs. 2,50,000/-to Nandkishore Lohia his nephew. There after the assessee's brother and nephew are said to have started a new firm dealing in Jute. At about the same time the assessee stopped his business. The assessee was also dealing in Jute. The question for consideration is whether the gifts alleged to have been made by the assesser were genuine gifts. This question came up for consideration before the authorities under the Act while dealing with the assessment of the assessee for the years 1945-1946 and 1946-1947. Therein on the basis of the material before them the Tribunal held that the gifts in question are not genuine gifts. The High Court did not interfere with the finding of the Tribunal on the basis that it is the finding of facts. When the matter was brought in appeal to this Court in Kanhaiyalal Lohia (deceased by his legal representatives Mahabir Prasad Khemka and Ors. vs Commissioner of Income Tax. West Bengal, [1962] 44 ITR 405(SC) , this Court also refused to interfere with the finding of the Tribunal observing that the question whether the gifts were real was a matter within the jurisdiction of the Appellate Tribunal as the final fact-finding authority. The question whether those very gifts were genuine or not again came up for consideration before the authorities under Act while dealing with the assessments with which we are concerned in this case. In those cases the assessee adduced considerable additional evidence and on the basis of that evidence the Tribunal after taking into consideration the decisions rendered by the Tribunal in the previous proceeding came to the conclusion that the gifts in question are genuine gifts. In arriving at that conclusion the Tribunal had taken into consideration various circumstances and those circumstances as set out by the Tribunal are as follows :