Judgment

S. K. DAS, J. : This is an appeal on a certificate of fitness granted under the provisions of sub-s. 2 of S. 66A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, by the High Court of Judicature for the State of Punjab then sitting at Simla. The certificate is dated December 28, 1953, and was granted on an application made by the Commissioner of Income-tax, Punjab, appellant herein. The relevant facts are shortly stated below.

2. For the assessment year 1946-1947 one Pandit Thakurdas Bhargava, an advocate of Hissar and respondent before us, was assessed to income-tax on a total assessable income of Rs. 58,475 in the account year 1945-1946. This sum included the amount of Rs. 32,500 stated to have been receive by the respondent in July, 1945, for defending the accused persons in a case known as the Farrukhnagar case. The assessee claimed that the said amount of Rs. 32,500 was not a part of his professional income, because the amount was given to him in trust or charity; this claim of the assessee was not accepted by the Income-tax Officer, nor by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner who heard the appeal from the order of the Income-tax Officer. Both these officers held that the assessee ha