Reassessment reopening based on factual appreciation of record was not a referable question of law, so reference failed.

The Tribunal held that the challenge to reassessment reopening turned on appreciation of the record, including the absence of material supporting a bona fide belief of escaped income and the mechanical nature of administrative approval. As no irrelevant material was relied on and no relevant material was ignored, the existence of the statutory preconditions for reopening was treated as a question of fact rather than a question of law. The proposed reference questions therefore did not arise from the Tribunal's order, and the reference applications were not entertainable. The annulment of the reassessments remained undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether the questions proposed in the reference applications arose as questions of law from the Tribunal's consolidated order, or whether the Tribunal's finding on the validity of the reassessment was a pure finding of fact.

Analysis: The Tribunal's earlier order had held that the reopening was unsupported by material showing a bona fide belief that the escaped income was likely to amount to the statutory threshold and that the approval granted by the administrative authority was mechanical. In the reference stage, the Tribunal examined whether this conclusion gave rise to a referable question of law. It found that its earlier conclusion rested on appreciation of the record and on the absence of material before the assessing officer and the approving authority. No irrelevant material had been relied upon and no relevant material had been ignored. The determination whether the statutory preconditions for reopening existed was therefore treated as one of fact, not of law.

Conclusion: The proposed questions did not arise as questions of law from the Tribunal's order, and the reference applications were not entertainable.

Final Conclusion: The Tribunal declined to send the matter to the High Court, leaving the annulment of the reassessments undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Tribunal's conclusion on reopening of assessment is founded on appreciation of evidence and record, and no legal question independently arises from that factual determination, no reference lies under the reference provision.

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