1969 (8) TMI 9

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....on to the Gift-tax Act, 1958, being ultra vires or unconstitutional in regard to certain provisions contained in it ? (2) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Gift-tax Act, 1958, is ultra vires the powers of Parliament and unconstitutional in so far as it purported to impose tax on gifts of land and building?" The facts stated in the statement of the case submitted by the Tribunal are that Madan Mohan, the assessee, gifted one bungalow situate at Jaipur to his wife and three sons during the accounting period ending on 31st March, 1963. The Gift-tax Officer, B-ward, Jaipur, taxed the value of gift at Rs. 91,250 by his order dated 30th November, 1963. Before him the question was raised that the provisions of t....

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....in a number of cases by their Lordships of the Supreme Court that the authorities under the taxing statute are not concerned with the validity of the taxing provisions and the question of ultra vires is foreign to the scope of their jurisdiction. Reference in this connection may be made to C. T. Senthilnathan Chettiar v. State of Madras, K. S. Venkataraman v. State of Madras and Commissioner of Income-tax v. Straw Produts Ltd. It is however urged that the Tribunal was not constituted under the Act but it was constituted under the Indian Income-tax Act and, as it was not created under the Act, it was not in any way debarred from entering into the question of the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Act. "Appellate Tribunal"....

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....authorised to create the Appellate Assistant Commissioners of gift-tax. They are thus the creatures of the Act. Under section 23(1) an assessee objecting to an order passed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner under the section mentioned therein could appeal to the Appellate Tribunal within the period mentioned therein, and the scope of an appeal as mentioned in section 23 is that the assessee can only raise objections with regard to the orders passed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Now, if the Gift-tax Officer or the appellate authority, namely, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, could not entertain any objection with regard to the vires of the Act, the assessee could not raise any objection with regard to the vires of th....