1000 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(c) Do Government propose to consider raising the status of the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal, by appointing as its chairman a person who has held office as Judge of a High Court ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) No.
(b) The suggestion for making the Federal Court an original Court for References under the Indian Income-Tax Act was fully considered in 1945-46 in connection with the proposal for enlargement of the jurisdiction of the Federal Court and in pursuance of Legislative Department Resolution dated
15th January, 1945 public opinion was consulted. The opinion was overwhelmingly against the suggestion, and the late Mr. Bhulabhai Desai characterised it as highly objection able in principle and unjust to the assessees. Now that the Federal Court is the Supreme Court for civil appeals, it would be inappropriate and anomalous to make it an original Court for Income-Tax References.
(c) References on points of law lie from the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal to the High Court and it is not necessary to raise its status by appointing as its President a person who has been Judge of a High Court. The existing status of the Tribunal is sufficiently high and care is always taken to appoint as President or Judicial Member either a senior member of the Bar or a senior District Judge, who is due to be promoted to the Bench. In fact both the previous Presidents are now serving as High Court Judges.
(9)
*GENERAL ELECTIONS
96. Shri Deshbandhu Gupta : ( a ) Will the Minister of Law be pleased to state whether any definite dates have been fixed for the first general elections to the House of the People ?
( b ) What progress has been made in the preparation of the electoral rolls and what steps have been taken to set up the electoral machinery ?
- Parliamentary Debates (Hereinafter called P.D.), Vol 1, Part I, 6th February 1950, p. 79.