Personal effects classification barred capital gains on sale of household articles; no referable question of law arose.

Silver beds, chairs, footstools and an elephant hauda were found on concurrent factual findings to have been used as furniture for the assessee's personal use or by family members, so they qualified as personal effects under the Income-tax Act. Their sale surplus was therefore not chargeable to capital gains. The controversy was treated as one of fact rather than a debatable legal issue, and no referable question of law was held to arise for High Court reference under section 256(1). The reference application was accordingly declined.

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Issues: Whether the items sold by the assessee were personal effects within the meaning of Section 2(14)(ii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and whether, on that basis, any question of law arose for reference under Section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: The Tribunal accepted the concurrent factual finding that the silver beds, chairs, footstools and elephant hauda were used as furniture for personal use by the assessee or members of his family and, therefore, constituted personal effects. On that footing, the surplus on their sale was held not chargeable to capital gains. The Tribunal further treated the matter as one turning purely on fact and not on any debatable legal issue warranting reference.

Conclusion: No question of law arose from the Tribunal's order; the reference application was declined.

Final Conclusion: The decision affirmed that the disputed articles were personal effects and that the proposed reference to the High Court was not maintainable because the controversy was factual, not legal.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the conclusion that an asset is a personal effect is reached on concurrent findings of fact, and the resulting capital gains treatment follows from that factual determination, no referable question of law arises.

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