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TMI Blog1982 (9) TMI 30X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sessment year 1962-63, corresponding to the previous calendar year 1961. In that case, a regular assessment has been made culminating into an appeal before the Tribunal which has since been decided. In all the four cases, the points involved are common, and hence this common judgment. We shall, however, deal with Taxation Cases Nos. 87, 88 and 89 of 1971 first, since they relate to a point of time earlier than the assessment year with which the Taxation Case No. 43 of 1970 is concerned. It may be worthwhile to mention here that in Taxation Cases Nos. 87 to 89 of 1971, a statement of case under s. 256(1) of the Act has been submitted by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Patna Bench, by a common order. In Taxation Case No. 43 of 1970, howe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... i Devi Budhia, respectively. The assessee produced copies of the lease deed before the assessing authority. The original assessment for the year 1959-60 was made at Rs. 30,770 as income from house property including the income of Rs. 20,000 from the aforesaid two properties as was estimated in the past. The original assessment order has been marked annex. A to the statement of the cases. The assessment of Smt. Subati Devi Budhia aforementioned, one of the lessees, was also made by the same ITO, namely, the ITO, Ward-A, Ranchi-Palamau Circle. A copy of that order has been marked annex. B. In course of the assessment year 1962-63, a detailed list of tenants and rents paid by them to the lessees was obtained. On scrutiny of this list, the ITO ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sed by the two lessees and after allowing for all statutory deductions, assess the assessee accordingly. In a nutshell the Tribunal held that the assessee should be reassessed at a figure which was the rent realised by the two lessees of the assessee and not what the assessee was under law entitled to recover. The assessee had made two claims before the Tribunal: (1) that s. 147 was not rightly invoked, because all the facts were known to the ITO. The Tribunal held that the full facts were not known to the ITO. In particular, the ITO was not aware of the higher value at which the properties were let out by the lessees. Further, even if there was a complete disclosure in the case of the lessees, such a disclosure in the assessee's case was n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ulated rent under the indentures of lease. None of these arguments found favour with the Tribunal. On these facts, the two questions have been referred for the opinion of this court. The answer to the first question would follow the answer to the second as a necessary corollary because whether the ITO validly assumed powers conferred under s. 147 to reopen the assessment would depend upon the answer to the question whether the bona fide letting value of the properties was rightly estimated at Rs. 22,728 in the hands of the assessee/lessor, being the rent realisable by the lessee from the tenants. It is not necessary for answering the second question to go into any great detail. It is pertinent to take note of what the Tribunal has said ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... however, make it clear that these, factors cannot and could not have been taken into consideration by the Tribunal in the blanket form. The assessee/lessor's right to raise these contentions must be hedged in by a limitation. That limitation is that the assessee having acquiesced in the Tribunal's previous order holding that Rs. 20,000 should be the deemed the annual letting value of the properties in question, the assessee cannot be permitted to resile from that position and claim any exemption in respect of any part of that Rs. 20,000. All the same, for the purpose of finding out as to whether there was any reason to reopen the assessment and assess the assessee/lessor at t figure higher than Rs. 20,000, the aforementioned, factors have t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 971, also answer the question which has been referred in Taxation Case No. 43 of 1971, as to whether the bona fide letting value of the properties, Nos. 548A and 571 A, was rightly taken at Rs. 28,728 in the hands of the assessee/lessor, being the rent realisable by the lessees from the tenants. Mr. B. P. Rajgarhia, learned senior standing counsel for the Department, urged that in any event, the money really received by way of rent by the assessee/lessor in excess of the fair rent determinable under the Rent Control Act may fall under the heading " Income from other sources " if owned under s. 56 of the Act read with s. 14 in Chapter IV, Caption C. This question was never previously raised and, therefore, we are not applying our mind to i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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