COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. SANTHOSH HOSPITAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGH considerable stress was laid by standing counsel for the Revenue that the Appellate Tribunal should not have interfered with the estimate of income made by the Commissioner (Appeals), we feel that in the facts and circumstances of this case no reference is called for. The assessing authority estimated the income of the assessee at Rs. 3,000 per day, for 300 working days in the year. On appeal, the number of working days was reduced to 270 and the receipt per day to Rs. 2,800. The Tribunal in second appeal confirmed the number of working days at 270, but reduced the receipt per day to Rs. 1,500 as against Rs. 2,800 fixed by the Commissioner. The case of the Department is that the assessee had stated that he was doing about six operations per day and was getting an average of Rs. 3,000 per day. But the assessee has retracted the statement and staled that what he had intended to convey was only the state of affairs up to March 31, 1988. The assessee had placed various facts before the Tribunal to contend that the type of treatment afforded by him was a new one evolved by him and that it required a lot of publicity as also conduct of free publicity camps in various places to attract sufficient customers. The Tribunal took a different view on the facts and circumstances of the case and came to the conclusion that it will be reasonable to limit the receipt per day of the assessee during the year in question to Rs. 1,500.

(2.) A perusal of the order of the Tribunal shows that adequate reasons have been stated therein as to why the reduction of the receipt per day to Rs. 1,500 was justified. It is not as if the Tribunal had acted on surmises. It has acted on cogent material available before it. The finding entered by the Tribunal is essentially a question of fact being an inference from the facts available on record.