Jagannatha Shetty J.—The following question has been referred to this court under s. 256(1) of the I.T. Act, 1961, at the instance of the Revenue :

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the I.T. A.T. is right in upholding the orders of the AAC with regard to the granting of registration to the assesses firm even though the partnership deed produced by the assesses firm before the ITO was defective in the sense that it was under stamped and any subsequent rectification to the deed will be effective from the date of rectification as per the provisions of the Indian Stamp Act ?"

2. The facts have been succinctly stated in the stated in the statement of the case and we may briefly set out hereunder only those that are relevant for our purpose.

3. The dispute in these cases relates to the assessee's right to registration of the partnership deed. The deed was undisputedly executed on September 3, 1973, on an insufficient stamp paper. The application for registration in Form No. 11A was field by the assessee on June 20, 1974, along with the said instrument. The ITO rejected the application for registration on the sole ground that the instrument was under sta