Jagannatha Shetty, J.—The following question has been referred by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Bangalore Bench, Bangalore, under s. 256(1) of the I.T. Act, 1961, for the opinion of this court :

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the assessment order which does not contain computation of tax, as in this case, is invalid under section 143(3) and has to be annulled ?"

2. The facts, briefly stated, are these :

R. Giridhar, the assessee, was a partner in several firms. For the year 1974-75, the ITO while making the assessment, computed the income and indicated the advance tax paid and also the T.D.S. He did not determine the sum payable, but such computation was made on a separate sheet of paper accompanying the assessment of the total income.

3. The assessment order was undisputedly signed by the ITO, but the said separate sheets for paper did not contain his signature.

4. The assessment order was made on March 30, 1976.

Challenging the validity of the assessment order, the assessee appealed to the AAC. One of the grounds of attack in the appeal was that the assessment order was invalid since to tax payable