TOLARAM DAGA Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE question referred to us in this income-tax reference is :

(2.) THIS reference was made in obedience to the requisition of this High Court dated 15th January, 1964, in Civil Rule No. 10 (M)/63 in the matter of Tolaram Daga v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura.

(3.) IT is contended by Mr. Pathak, the learned counsel for the department, that on the materials available before the Tribunal, the Tribunal had come to a finding of fact that the monies belonged to the assessee and not to the actual depositor, that this finding of fact is binding on this court in a reference of this kind and that it is not open to this court to sit in judgment over the decision of the Tribunal as if it were a court of appeal. He further pointed out that as the depositor is only the wife of the petitioner and that as the circumstances in which the monies came to be acquired by his wife and deposited with the firm must have been within the special knowledge of the petitioner himself, the burden is on him to establish the actual source of the monies deposited, and that, as such a proof has not been adduced to the satisfaction of the authorities and the Tribunal, the petitioner cannot claim any relief and that the Tribunals finding is perfectly in order and that the question should be answered in the affirmative.