TMI Blog1962 (2) TMI 7X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ppellate Assistant Commissioner. The jurisdiction of the High Court under section 66 of the Income-tax Act is merely advisory. The High Court does not sit in appeal over the judgment of the income-tax authorities : it is not concerned to decide whether the conclusion of the Tribunal on appreciation of evidence is correct. There was apparently a mass of evidence on which the conclusion of the Appellate Tribunal could be founded and the question which fell to be determined by it was purely one of fact. It is true that a finding of fact which is not supported by any evidence or is unreasonable and perverse may be open to challenge on the ground that it is not supported by any material on the record, but, as we have already observed, there w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ji Kapurchand and Messrs. Bhimaji Motiji respectively were noticed by the Income-tax Officer. A partner of the assessees explained that these two parties were their constituents, and had entered into speculative transactions through them as brokers with Bhawanji Lakhmichand and Joitram Kedarnath and that the latter had suffered losses which aggregated to Rs. 12,303 and Rs. 1,81,587 respectively and that the payments to the assessees by the said two persons " were passed on " to these two constituents. The Income-tax Officer was not satisfied with the explanation and examined Achaldas, a partner of Messrs. Meghaji Kapurchand, and Poonamchand, a partner of Messrs. Bhimaji Motiji. On a consideration of the material placed before him the Income ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... High Court of Bombay submitted a statement of the case and referred the two questions set out hereinbefore. The High Court after an exhaustive review of the evidence held that there was material on the record to support the findings of the Tribunal that the sums of Rs. 1,45,706 and Rs. 48,185 which were the subject-matter of the reference represented the income of the assessees. The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal on a review of the evidence recorded the following findings : (1) That the assessees in the years previous to Samvat 2002 had no transactions with Messrs. Meghaji Kapurchand or with Messrs. Bhimaji Motiji and it was not possible to believe that transactions involving large sums of money would be put through by the assessee's i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pport of their case that the latter had received payments from the assessees as claimed, the Tribunal agreed with the view of the Income-tax Officer. By the two questions referred, the High Court was called upon to advise the Tribunal whether there was any material on the record to support the finding that the amount of Rs. 1,45,706 and Rs. 48,185 represented the income of the assessees. Counsel for the assessees in this appeal has contended that the statements of Achaldas and Poonamchand who were examined by the Income-tax Officer in the absence of the assessees could not be regarded as evidence against the assessees and that the only legal evidence on the record was the statement of these witnesses before the Appellate Assistant Com ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... private enquiry. But if he desires to use the material so collected, the assessee must be informed of the material and must be given an adequate opportunity of explaining it. The statements made by Achaldas and Poonamchand before the Income-tax Officer were material on which the income-tax authorities could act provided that the material was disclosed and the assessees had opportunity to render their explanation in that behalf. It was therefore open to the Tribunal in appreciating the evidence to rely upon the statements made by Achaldas and Poonamchand before the Income-tax Officer and to disbelieve the statements made by them before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. The jurisdiction of the High Court under section 66 of the Income ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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