Finding on specified trust status and determinate shares is factual, so no reference under income-tax law was directed.

Whether a trust was specified or unspecified, and whether its beneficiaries and their shares were known and determinate, was treated as a finding of fact and therefore not a referable question of law under section 256(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Rajasthan High Court also noted that the remaining proposed questions had already been declined in earlier applications involving the same assessee and the same issues, so it saw no reason to take a different view. The Revenue's request for reference was rejected, and no reference was directed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Revenue was entitled to have the proposed questions of law referred under section 256(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, including the question whether the trust was a specified trust with known beneficiaries and determinate shares and whether section 164(1) applied.

Analysis: The question whether a trust is specified or unspecified and whether the beneficiaries and their shares are known and determinate was treated as a finding of fact and, therefore, not a referable question. The remaining proposed questions had already been declined in earlier applications involving the same assessee and the same issues, and the Court saw no reason to take a different view.

Conclusion: The application for reference was rejected.

Final Conclusion: No reference was directed, and the Revenue's request under section 256(2) failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A finding on whether a trust is specified or unspecified and whether beneficiaries' shares are determinate is a finding of fact and is not open to reference as a question of law under section 256(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

---