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TMI Blog1964 (3) TMI 93X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unal in question. The questions of law referred for our opinion are: "(1) Whether the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal was justified in relying upon the average yield of another excise contractor without giving an opportunity to the assessee for rebuttal? and (2) Whether the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal can rely upon the average yield of only one contractor to determine the yield of the assessee?" The assessee is an association of persons doing abkari contract in Sadam of Gulbarga District which was formerly a part of the old Hyderabad State and now a part of the Mysore State. In this case we are concerned with the assessment of the assessee for the assessment years 1950-51, 1951-52 and 1952-53. The Income-tax Officer rejected th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oses of framing an estimate, the Income-tax Officer adopted generally 120 seers of toddy as yield per tree with slight variations thereof for some of the years for certain specific areas. The basis for such estimate is the production shown by another tapper for the year ended September 30, 1950, in an area which was also tapped by the assessee for the earlier and subsequent years. The assessee, however, has shown average yields of 88 1/3, 96 and 103 seers per tree for the three respective assessment years presently under appeal and in support thereof has filed a certificate from the Superintendent of Excise which speaks to the normal yield being round about 90 seers only per tree. This certificate from the excise department, in the circumst ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... "In this case we are of the opinion that the Tribunal violated certain fundamental rules of justice in reaching its conclusions. Firstly, it did not disclose to the assessee what information had been supplied to it by the departmental representative. Next, it did not give any opportunity to the company to rebut the material furnished to it by him, and, lastly, it declined to take all the material that the assessee wanted to produce in support of its case. The result is that the assessee had not had a fair hearing. The estimate of the gross rate of profit on sales, both by the Income-tax Officer and the Tribunal, seems to be based on surmises, suspicions and conjectures. It is somewhat surprising that the Tribunal took from the represe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Court in Omar Salay Mohamed Sait v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1959] 37 I.T.R. 151 (S.C.), wherein it was laid down: "The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal is a fact-finding tribunal and if it arrives at its own conclusions of fact after due consideration of the evidence before it the court will not interfere. It is necessary, however, that every fact for and against the assessee must have been considered with due care and the Tribunal must have given its finding in a manner which would clearly indicate what were the questions which arose for determination, what was the evidence pro and contra in regard to each one of them and what were the findings reached on the evidence on record before it. The conclusions reached by the Tribunal sh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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