JHAVERBHAI PATEL Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two references have been made under Section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Act"), and a case has been stated by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Patna Bench. The following common questions of law with regard to each of the two cases have been referred for opinion to this court:

(2.) TAX Case No. 42 of 1969 relates to the assessment year 1958-59, whereas TAX Case No. 23 of 1970 is in respect of the assessment year 1960-61 the assessee being in each of the cases an individual--Shri Jhaverbhai Patel. The corresponding previous years for the aforesaid two assessment years were Diwali, 1957, and Diwali, 1959, respectively.

(3.) FROM the analysis of facts as noticed by the Tribunal, which I have already recapitulated earlier, it is clear that the Tribunal has felt coerced by its earlier decision on the question regarding the nature of the gifts. There, I must say, the Tribunal was not well instructed in law, for, it is well-settled that the fact that in the earlier proceedings the Tribunal took a different view of the gifts was not a conclusive circumstance, the decision of the Tribunal reached in those proceedings did not and could not, in law, operate as res judicata. Reference in this connection may be made to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Commissioner of Income-tax v. Brij Lal Lohia, 1972 84 ITR 273 (SC). Decisions may be multiplied but the principle of law is so well settled that I do not see any necessity for it. I have thus no hesitation in answering the first question as reframed in the negative as it must be held that the Tribunal was not correct in coming to the conclusion that the gifts were inchoate and incomplete only on the ground that this question was concluded by the Tribunal's previous order in relation to the assessment year 1954-55.