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1. Deductibility of maintenance expenditure under a will before ascertaining assessable income. Analysis: The case involved a question regarding the deductibility of maintenance expenditure under a will before ascertaining the assessable income of the assessee. The assessee had claimed a deduction of Rs. 14,000 towards maintenance expenditure on her children for the assessment years 1969-70, 1970-71, and 1971-72. The Income-tax Officer rejected the deduction claimed by the assessee for all three years. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner allowed the appeals filed by the assessee, but the Revenue appealed to the Tribunal, which remitted the appeals for fresh disposal without adjudicating on merits. The assessee then moved the Tribunal to refer a question of law to the High Court, which was initially rejected by the Tribunal but later directed by a Division Bench of the High Court to refer the question. The High Court, however, declined to answer the question as it did not arise for determination from the Tribunal's order, directing the parties to bear their own costs. The High Court emphasized that it cannot sit in judgment over the earlier order made by the court or the Tribunal. While the power to reframe a question referred for opinion exists to bring out the real controversy, in this case, the parties did not dispute that the question referred did not actually arise for determination from the Tribunal's order. As a result, the High Court concluded that there was no justification for answering the question. The court also noted that Section 256 of the Act does not empower them to frame an altogether new question that was not part of the original reference. Therefore, the court declined to answer the question referred but directed the parties to bear their own costs.
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