Reference of question of law narrowed to the true legal issue on limitation for initiating proceedings.

Only one proposed issue was found to be a genuine question of law arising from the reference application, so the High Court confined the reference to that issue and reframed it to focus on the permissible period for initiating proceedings under Section 11A. It directed the Tribunal to draw up the statement of facts on the reframed question and transmit the case to the Court. The application thus succeeded to the extent that a legal question was identified and referred in narrowed form.

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Issues: Whether the application under Section 35G(3) of the Central Excises and Salt Act should result in reference of a question of law to the High Court, and whether the period for initiating proceedings was five years or six months under Section 11A.

Analysis: The Court found that only one of the proposed questions was a question of law arising from the case. It therefore reframed that question into a narrower legal issue concerning the permissible period for initiating proceedings under Section 11A and directed the Tribunal to draw up the statement of facts on the reframed question and transmit it to the Court.

Conclusion: The application succeeded to the extent that a question of law was identified and referred in reframed form.

Final Conclusion: The assessee obtained the requested reference on the legal issue identified by the Court.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an application for reference discloses only one genuine question of law, the Court may limit the reference to that question and require the Tribunal to state the case on the reframed issue.

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