TMI Blog1978 (1) TMI 74X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecting the Income-tax Officer on that basis to recompute the tax according to the provisions of law laid down in the Finance Act, 1964 ? " The facts found and/or admitted in these proceedings are, inter alia, as follows. Messrs. Simplex Concrete Piles (India) Pvt. Ltd., the assessee, was assessed to income-tax in the assessment year 1964-65 when its total income was assessed at Rs. 5,51,919. On appeal, this amount was reduced to Rs. 4,38,478. Thereupon, the assessee claimed that since it was engaged in the business of manufacture and/or processing concrete piles and since its total income for the said assessment year was below Rs. 5 lakhs it was entitled to relief under the provisions of Paragraph D of Part II of the First Schedule to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the revenue that the piles made by the assessee were not goods and, therefore, there could not be any manufacture. The Tribunal noted that the only point for consideration was whether there was a mistake apparent from the record. The Tribunal considered the meaning of the word " pile " from the Concise Oxford Dictionary as follows : " Pointed stake or post; heavy beam driven vertically into bed of river, soft ground, etc., as support for bridge, etc." The Tribunal found that in certain cases the assessee constructed the piles at the work site itself and in other cases piles were made separately and then taken to the site and driven into the ground. From the letter of the assessee dated the 7th July, 1965, filed by the assessee before ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 82 ITR 50, 53. In this case, the Supreme Court considered what was a " mistake apparent on the record ". The Supreme Court observed as follows : " A mistake apparent on the record must be an obvious and patent mistake and not something which can be established by a long drawn process of reasoning on points on which there may conceivably be two opinions. As seen earlier, the High Court of Bombay opined that the original assessments were in accordance with law though in our opinion the High Court was not justified in going into that question. In Satyanarayan Laxminarayan Hegde v. Mallikarjun Bhavanappa Tirumale [1960] 1 SCR 890 this court, while spelling out the scope of the power of a High Court under article 226 of the Constitution, ruled ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... covers any mistake he can proceed to rectify it by following the procedure laid down in the section. If necessary the Income-tax Officer could travel to the records of the earlier assessment to detect an initial mistake which might have been followed and might have resulted in. (b) Mahendra Mills Ltd. v. P. B. Desai, Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax [1975] 99 ITR 135 (SC). In this case, the Supreme Court again considered the meaning of the words " apparent from the record " in section 35 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, and held that the expression " record " did not refer only to the order of assessment but included all proceedings on which the assessment order was based and that the Income-tax Officer would be entitled ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ITR 811, where it was held that the business of printing balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, dividend warrants, pamphlets, share certificates, etc., was a business of manufacturing of goods. In the facts and circumstances of this case however, in our opinion the order of the Tribunal cannot be sustained. The Tribunal erred, firstly, in embarking on a detailed investigation of facts of the actual work carried on by the assessee as also in seeking to construe the meaning of different general expressions like " manufacture ", " piling " and " goods ". It is only after such investigation and construction that the Tribunal came to the conclusion that a mistake appeared on the record. The Tribunal was further in error in holding that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and not a production of pile, simpliciter. In any event it cannot be said with certainty whether the activities of the assessee was mainly manufacture or mainly construction, the manufacture of piles being an ancilliary to such construction. Two views were possible as to whether the assessee was carrying on manufacture or processing and also whether the assessee was engaged wholly or mainly in such manufacture or processing. On these grounds, it appears to us that the mistake, if any, in the record is not apparent so as to be rectified under section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. For the reasons aforesaid, we answer the question referred to us in the negative and in favour of the revenue. There will be no order as to costs. C. K. B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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