1996 (7) TMI 57

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....o them. The two assessees expect our answer to the following two questions : "1. Whether, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is justified in their view that it is necessary that the instrument of partnership should have been in existence in the accounting year in respect of which assessment is being made ? 2. Whether, in the facts and circumstances of the case, registration can be granted with retrospective effect even without the existence of instrument of partnership during the relevant period in view of the provisions contained in section 27 of the Agricultural Income-tax Act ? The question of assessment is under the provisions of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950. Section 3 is the charging section w....

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....e above provision and as to whether it can be understood retrospectively in the context of factual existence of the partnership though oral relatable to the earlier date. After hearing learned counsel for the assessee as well as the learned Government Pleader for the Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax, Trivandrum, we find certain obvious situations revealing peculiarities of facts. They are found in detail in the order of the first appellate authority -the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), Agricultural Income-tax and Sales Tax, Kozhikode. The facts reveal that two persons, namely, one Rev. Fr. Mathew, Panjikkattil of Mary Giri, Tiruvalla, and Rev. Sr. Mary Elisuba of Holy Spirit Sisters Convent, Thukalassery, Tiruvalla, managing par....

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....s of the registered firms with retrospective effect. Apart from the position with reference to the above factual matrix the two appellate authorities relied on the decision of the Supreme Court in R. C. Mitter and Sons v. CIT [1959] 36 ITR 194, dealing with the situation under section 26A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), which is ad verbatim identical with the present section. The apex court has laid down the following conditions : "In order that a firm may be entitled to registration under section 26A of the Income-tax Act, the following essential conditions must be satisfied, viz. : (i) the firm should be constituted under an instrument of partnership, specifying the individual shares of the partners ; (ii) an app....