TMI Blog1943 (1) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sessment was first made on the applicants for the charge year 1939-40 on a total income of ₹ 54,024. By virtue of Section 3 of the Income-tax Act the amount of Income-tax and super-tax to be charged was according to the rates prescribed by the Finance Act of 1939; but a provision in the latter Act made a concession in respect of incomes derived from certain specified sources and assessed for the year in question by directing that income-tax and super-tax shall be charged at the rates prescribed by the Finance Act of 1938. The Income-tax Officer who made the first assessment thought that the applicants' income was governed by that provision and determined the tax according to the old rates. Later, however, he appeared to have reali ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ctober. The Tribunal stated to the advocate that the additional ground had not been added to the memorandum of appeal by means of a suitable amendment and that consequently the other side had no reasonable opportunity to meet it. On this ground the Tribunal did not allow the assessees' advocate to argue that point. 3. The Tribunal concedes that what the applicants sought to urge by way of an additional ground was a pure question of law and that such a point of law could be taken in appeal. It is also admitted by the Tribunal that the contention raised in the additional ground went into the root of the matter and if accepted would result in the re-assessments being set aside altogether, but that they did not permit that point to be ta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or the Rules whereunder an application for urging an additional ground of appeal is required to be stamped or verified. 4. An attempt was made to argue that inasmuch as a memorandum of appeal requires to be verified an application whereby an additional ground of appeal is intended to be urged should also be verified. But an application for urging an additional ground is not a memorandum of appeal. The memorandum of appeal was admittedly duly verified, and if the application for urging the additional ground had been allowed the additional ground would have formed part of that memorandum of appeal which had already been verified. At any rate, in the absence of rules or provisions in the Act for verification and court-fee stamp for such an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r not is left to the discretion of the Tribunal. Counsel for the Income-tax Commissioner drew our attention to rule 22 of the rules made by the Tribunal, though the Income-tax Tribunal did not invite our attention to rule 22 but invited our attention only to Section 33 and rules 17 to 21. Counsel urged that the memorandum of appeal has to be amended as required by rule 22. Rule 22 deals with a memorandum of appeal which has not been drawn up in the prescribed manner and enacts that such a memorandum may be rejected or may, on such terms as the Tribunal may think fit, be returned to the appellant for the purpose of being amended within a time to be fixed by the Tribunal or then and there. This rule has nothing to do with an application for l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... application was filed on the 4th of October 1941, that it reached the office on the 7th October 1941, that the case was to be heard on the 11th October, and that on that date the Income-tax Department had full notice of the fact that permission to urge such an additional ground was being asked for. There is nothing in the order of the Tribunal to indicate that the Income-tax Officer objected to the grant of leave for urging the new ground. As the Income-tax Department raised no objection to the additional ground and did not suggest that it had no reasonable opportunity of meeting it the Tribunal was not justified in rejecting the very reasonable prayer of the assessees. We are aware of the fact that under the rules it is for the Tribunal t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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