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Issues: Whether, in a tax reference under section 61 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, the party at whose instance the reference was made could abandon the proceeding before the hearing concluded and whether the High Court could refuse to answer the referred question.
Analysis: Section 61 makes the reference jurisdiction dependent on an application by the aggrieved person or the Commissioner, and the High Court's duty to answer arises only upon the hearing of the case. The statutory scheme does not bar abandonment of the reference by the party who set the reference in motion. The party in that position is in the nature of a dominus litis, and the ordinary principle governing withdrawal of proceedings applies by analogy. Accordingly, a request not to press the reference should ordinarily be accepted when made before the hearing is concluded, unless acceptance would defeat a vested right already accrued to the opposite party. The contrary view that the court must answer the reference merely because it was once made was not accepted.
Conclusion: The party at whose instance the reference was made could validly request that it not be answered, and the High Court was justified in declining to answer the question because the request was made before conclusion of the hearing and no vested right of the other side was shown.
Final Conclusion: The reference was left unanswered and the proceeding was brought to an end without any adjudication on the referred question.
Ratio Decidendi: In a statutory reference, the referring party may abandon the reference before the hearing concludes, and the court may decline to answer the question unless doing so would defeat a vested right that has already accrued to the opposite party.
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