Judgement

SEN, J.:- The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal referred the following question of law arising out of its order to the High Court for its opinion :-

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the amounts received by the assessee by way of undercharges, do not constitute its trading receipts, and that accordingly neither the surplus of the receipts remaining unpaid nor the amounts transferred by the assessee to the profit and loss account could be assessed as the income of the assessee in the years 1953-54, 1956-57, 1957-58, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63?"

2. At all material times, Karam Chand Thapar and others, the assessee herein, carried on business as del credere agent of the collieries and also as agent of the purchasers of coal. It acted, so to speak, as a double agent. The coal sold by the collieries were sent by wagon to various purchasers FOR. The purchasers paid for the freight. Even if the wagons were not filled to its full capacity, the practice of the railways was to charge for the full wagon-load. In other words, the purchasers did not get any rebate from the railways for the wagons not being