COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX Vs. ABDUL RAUF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE five references are made by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal under Section 66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act at the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax, Bihar and Orissa, for the opinion of this Court on the same two questions which arise in all these cases :-

(2.) THE second question is necessarily involved in the first question and need not have been separately framed.

(3.) THIS position which is supported by such a high and weighty authority cannot be questioned and has not been questioned by Mr. Gupta, who appears for the Commissioner of Income-tax. But his argument is that by Section 3 of the Indian Income-tax Act since the Finance Act of 1939 was passed for the whole of India it empowered the Income-tax Officer to assess the taxable income of the assessee and relies upon the case of Chinnaswamy Mudaliar v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Civil and Military Station, Bangalore. In that case the question for consideration was whether in the absence of the introduction of the Indian Finance Acts in the Civil and Military Station, Bangalore, the Income-tax Department could levy income-tax at the particular rate and surcharge as specified in the Finance Acts. The learned Chief Justice, who delivered the judgment of the Bench, made these observations, in a short paragraph : "It is conceded here that the Indian Income-tax Act is in force in the Civil and Military Station, Bangalore, and that is the reason why the first question has not been argued. That having conceded, it seems to me that a contention that there must be a negative answer to the question raised in question No. 2 and the first part of question No. 3 is hardly arguable. I quite agree with the reasons given by the Commissioner of Income-tax Bangalore, for answering this question and the first part of question No. 3 in the affirmative." We have no information as to the provisions which prevailed at that time by which the Government was empowered to apply the Indian Finance Act to the Civil and Military Station of Bangalore, nor has any provisions been pointed out to us in the Government of India Act, as it then existed, which was at all similar to the clear and imperative provisions to be found in Section 92(1) of the Act which emphatically enjoin that no act of the Indian Legislature shall apply to an excluded or partially excluded area unless the Governor of the Province concerned notifies or makes a regulation to that effect.