S.C. Sen, J. - (1.) The following question of law has been referred by the Tribunal to this court under Section 256(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ("the Act") : "Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was correct in holding that the mistake sought to be rectified by the Income-tax Officer was not a mistake which was apparent from the record within the meaning of Section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ?"
(2.) This reference relates to the assessment year 1963-64 but no paper book has been filed as of date, although it has been pending in this court since 1977.
(3.) The facts of the case, as stated in the statement of the case, are briefly as follows ; "The assessee is a limited company. In the course of assessment, extra shift depreciation allowance was allowed at Rs. 5,38,769 on the basis of the claim made by the assessee. The assessee had been allowed normal depreciation allowance of Rs. 5,38,769 at 50 per cent, of the allowance for the whole year as the assessee's working days were less than 180 days. The Income-tax Officer proposed to rectify the order by reducing the extra shift depreciation allowance as he was of the view that the extra shift allowance could be allowed only at 50 per cent, of the normal depreciation actually allowed to the assessee and not at 50 per cent, of the maximum permissible depreciation for the whole year as had been done in the assessment. The assessee's plea was that extra shift depreciation allowance had been correctly allowed in the assessment. This plea was not accepted by the Income-tax Officer and he rectified the order as proposed by him on the ground that the mistake was an obvious one. He, accordingly, reduced the extra shift depreciation allowance to Rs. 2,65,793 on the basis of the depreciation allowance actually allowed to the assessee.";