Reference application maintainability turns on filing by the competent authority; authorisation alone was insufficient and the application failed.

A reference application under tax appellate procedure must be filed by the competent authority itself; filing by an Assistant Commissioner on the basis of authorisation was treated as defective. The Tribunal applied earlier decisions to hold that a reference application presented through an unauthorised mode is not maintainable. On that basis, the department's application was rejected.

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Issues: Whether the reference application filed by the department was maintainable when it had been filed by the Assistant Commissioner on the basis of authorization.

Analysis: The Tribunal noted the preliminary objection that the application had not been filed by the Collector himself, but by the Assistant Commissioner under authorization. Relying on earlier Tribunal decisions, it held that a reference application must be filed by the competent authority and that filing through an unauthorized mode rendered the application defective and not maintainable.

Conclusion: The reference application was held to be not maintainable and was rejected.

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