Advisory tax reference jurisdiction may be declined when the assessee does not appear or assist the Court.

Under the advisory reference jurisdiction in section 34 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953, the High Court is not bound to answer every question of law where doing so would serve no practical purpose. If the reference is made at the instance of the assessee and the assessee remains absent, shows no interest in pursuing the matter, and provides no assistance to the Court, the Court may decline to decide the question. Relying on analogous reference provisions in income-tax and wealth-tax law, the Court treated the unanswered reference as unnecessary and declined to answer the question of law.

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Issues: Whether, in a tax reference made at the instance of the assessee, the High Court should answer the question of law when the applicant-assessee remains absent and does not assist the Court.

Analysis: The jurisdiction under section 34 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953 is advisory, but the Court held that it is not bound to decide every reference academically or to no practical purpose. Where the party at whose instance the reference was made does not appear and shows no interest in pursuing the question, the Court considered it unnecessary to expend judicial time in answering the reference. The Court relied on analogous decisions under similarly worded reference provisions in the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 and the Wealth-tax Act, 1957.

Conclusion: The reference was declined and the question of law was not answered.

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