SYED SADIQUE IMAM Vs. COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LATE Syed Hyder Imam was assessed under the I. T. Act, for the assessment years 1964-65 and 1966-67, and income from one residential house in the town of Patna was held to be taxable in his hands, as his case of having given that house in discharge of dower debt to his wife in the year 1961 was not accepted because the same was not by a registered instrument, but by an oral gift. Against the original orders of assessment for both the years, the assessee filed appeals before the AAC of Income-tax, Patna, and the Assistant Commissioner allowed the appeals and accepted the assessee's case that the income from the house was not taxable in the hands of the assessee. In other words, the Assistant Commissioner accepted the assessee's case that the residential house was validly transferred in lieu of dower debt to the wife by the assessee. Against this order, the department filed appeals before the Tribunal, which allowed both the appeals in respect of both the assessment years and restored the orders of the assessing officer, holding that the income from the residential house in question was taxable in the hands of the assessee. At the instance of the assessee, the Tribunal referred the following questions for the opinion of this court under Section 256(1) of the I. T. Act :

(2.) DURING the pendency of these two reference cases, the assessee died and his heirs have been substituted in his place as petitioners in these tax reference cases.