Pure question of law on existing facts can be admitted and remanded for fresh tax adjudication.

The Tribunal may admit a new legal ground based on facts already on record where no further factual investigation is required, and may remit the issue for fresh consideration; here, the assessee's claim that seed-production income was agricultural income was accepted as an additional ground and sent back for de novo adjudication. The principle applied was that appellate jurisdiction extends to a pure question of law going to tax liability, provided the existing material is sufficient to decide it. The remaining additional ground and connected grounds were not independently adjudicated after the remand of the agricultural-income issue.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the Tribunal could admit the assessee's additional ground claiming that the income was agricultural income and remit that issue for fresh consideration. (ii) Whether the other additional ground and the remaining connected grounds survived for adjudication.

Issue (i): Whether the Tribunal could admit the assessee's additional ground claiming that the income was agricultural income and remit that issue for fresh consideration.

Analysis: The controversy turned on the Tribunal's power to entertain a pure question of law arising from the facts already on record. The record contained the entire factual matrix relating to the assessee's seed-production activity, and no further investigation of new facts was necessary for examining the legal claim. The Tribunal applied the settled principle that appellate jurisdiction is wide enough to permit a new legal plea when it goes to the root of tax liability and can be decided on existing material. The first additional ground was therefore admitted, but since it had not been examined by the Assessing Officer on these facts, the matter was sent back for fresh adjudication in the light of the applicable agricultural-income principles.

Conclusion: The additional ground was admitted and restored to the Assessing Officer for de novo consideration; this issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal was disposed of by granting limited relief to the assessee through admission of the additional legal ground and remand of the agricultural-income question, while the remaining issues were left without independent adjudication.

Ratio Decidendi: The Tribunal may admit a new question of law arising from facts already on record and remand it for fresh consideration where no further factual investigation is required.

---