TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1998 (8) TMI 62
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.... of the case, so far as relevant for the decision on the point, may briefly be stated as follows. The assessee was a practicing advocate at Dhanbad. In the course of time, he shifted his practice to the Ranchi Bench of the Patna High Court and, later, was elevated as a judge of the High Court on March 9, 1987. During the relevant assessment year 1988-89 corresponding to the accounting year 1987-88 to which the dispute relates, he received a sum of Rs. 4,31,633 which were outstanding dues for the professional work done during the previous accounting year, i.e., 1986-87. It may be mentioned here that as an advocate practising at Dhanbad he used to file his incometax returns before the Income-tax Officer, Ward-II, Dhanbad, and for the assessment year 1988-89, also as before, he filed the return before him. It is said that after the appointment of the assessee as a judge of the Patna High Court, his assessment records were transferred from Dhanbad to the Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Circle-1, Patna, and, later to Ranchi. It is the case of the assessee that this was done without giving any notice and opportunity of hearing to him and without complying with the mandatory prov....
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....er the present application is maintainable in this court. The answer to the question turns on the question as to whether this court is competent to issue a direction to the Appellate Tribunal at Calcutta to make a reference to this court. Section 256(1) of the Act provides for reference by the Appellate Tribunal of any question of law arising out of the appellate order under section 254 to the High Court for its opinion at the instance of either the assessee or the Commissioner. If the application in this regard goes in vain, under section 256(2), the assessee or the Commissioner may, within the prescribed period, apply to the High Court and if the High Court is not satisfied with the correctness of the decision of the Tribunal and is of the opinion that a question of law arises, it may require the Tribunal to state the case and refer the same to it. On receipt of such requisition the Tribunal shall state the case and refer the same to the High Court. As per the provisions of section 269, the term "High Court" in the context means the High Court for the particular State. Section 252 of the Act provides for constitution of an Appellate Tribunal by the Central Government to exe....
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....vent such a requisition had been made by the concerned High Court, i.e., the Calcutta High Court. In view of the provisions of section 269 of the Act, the expression "High Court" occurring in section 256 of the Act has to be understood to mean the High Court within whose territorial jurisdiction the concerned Appellate Tribunal is situated. That is to say, while a particular Tribunal can make a reference to only that High Court within whose territorial jurisdiction it is situated and is competent to deal with the requisition sent by it under section 256(2), it can neither make reference to any other High Court nor deal with the requisition sent by that High Court. Thus, while the Appellate Tribunal at Patna can make reference only to the Patna High Court under section 256(1) of the Act and deal with the requisition made by it under section 256(1), the Appellate Tribunal at Calcutta, likewise, can make reference to the Calcutta High Court alone and deal with requisition made by it. It would thus follow that neither can the Patna High Court make a requisition to the Appellate Tribunal at Calcutta nor, for that matter, can the Calcutta High Court do so with respect to the Appellate Tr....
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....ent : "In law, the appellate order of confirmation is quite as efficacious as an operative order as an appellate order of reversal or modification. Therefore, if the appellate authority is beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court it seems difficult to hold even in a case where the appellate authority has confirmed the order of the original authority that the High Court can issue a writ to the original authority which may even have the effect of setting aside the order of the original authority when it cannot issue a writ to the appellate authority which has confirmed the order of the original authority. In effect, by issuing a writ to the original authority setting aside its order, the High Court would be interfering with the order of the appellate authority which had confirmed the order of the original authority even though it has no territorial jurisdiction to issue any writ to the appellate authority. We, therefore, feel that on principle when once an order of original authority is taken in appeal to the appellate authority which is located beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court, it is the order of the latter authority which is the operative order ....