Commissioner of Income Tax vs Desai Brothers Ltd.

Sujata V. Manohar, J.—This is an application u/s 256(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for directing the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal to state the case and refer to this court a question for determination which is set out in the application. It is an accepted position that as far as this court is concerned, the question has been decided in favour of the assessee by a decision of this court in Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City III Vs. Century Spg. and Mfg. Co. Ltd., . In the circumstances, we do not see any reason for allowing the application because, even if the question is framed and referred to us, we will have to answer it in the light of the above decision in Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City III Vs. Century Spg. and Mfg. Co. Ltd., .

It is pointed out by Mr. Jetley that a SLP from the above judgment is pending before the Supreme Court. That, in our view, can be of no assistance because until the question is decided by the Supreme Court, as far as we are concerned, we would be bound by our own decision in Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay City III Vs. Century Spg. and Mfg. Co. Ltd., . A similar view was taken in Income Tax Application No. 179 of 1983 decided on February 27, 1984, to which one of us (Mrs. Sujata Manohar J.), was a party. Our attention is drawn to the decision of another Division Bench of this court (S.K. Desai and V.S. Kotwal JJ.) dated October 4, 1988, in Income Tax Application No. 1 of 1985 Rajratha Naranbhai Mills Co. Ltd. Vs. Sales Tax Officer, Petlad, (Appendix) where the Division Bench made the rule absolute in a case where a decision of the Allahabad High Court which had been followed by our High Court was under appeal before the Supreme Court. It appears that our earlier decision was not brought to the notice of the second Division Bench. For the reasons set out above, we follow the earlier decision of February 27, 1984. The rule is, therefore, discharged with no order as to costs.