DIPAK KUMAR SEN, J.

( 1 ) IN this reference at the instance of the Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal-I, the Tribunal has been directed under Section 256 (2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, to send up a statement in respect of the following two questions :"1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that there was no mistake apparent from the record regarding the allowance of Rs. 61,163 as wealth-tax and that accordingly the order of rectification passed by the Income-tax Officer in respect thereof was not justified in law ? whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that the omission to charge interest under Section 18a (7) of the Income-tax Act could not be rectified under Section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and in deleting the charge of Rs. 7,173. 63 made by the Income-tax Officer ?"

( 2 ) THE facts found or admitted as will appear from the statement of the case and the annexures thereto may briefly be noted.

( 3 ) THE assessee is General Electric Co. of India Ltd. , Calcutta. At the relevant time, that is, during the assessment year 1959-60, the assessee was known as the Associated Electric Industries (India) Private Ltd. Subsequently, on and from the 29th March, 1967, the assessee first became a public limited company and thereafter suffered a merger pursuant to an order of this court dated the 27th February, 1969.

( 4 ) THE assessment year involved is 1959-60 in which the assessee was assessed to wealth-tax. In the order of assessment dated the 4th November, 1960, of income-tax, the Income-tax Officer allowed a deduction of the wealth-tax paid by the assessee.

( 5 ) THEREAFTER, on the 5th August, 1964, the Income-tax Officer issued a notice alleging that there was a mistake apparent from the record within the meaning of Section 154 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, in the said order of assessment and proposed to rectify the same. The assessee was allowed an opportunity of being heard.

( 6 ) THE mistakes which the Income-tax Officer had in contemplation were, firstly, that the aforesaid allowance of a sum of Rs. 51,165 paid by way of wealth-tax for the assessment years 1957-58 and 1958-59; and, secondly, the patent omission to charge interest under Section 18a (7) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, This section provided that where an assessee underestimated the advance tax payable by him in any of the first three instalments, then in such a case the Income-tax Officer had the power to direct payment of simple interest at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum for the period during which the advance payment fell short of the amount of the actual advance which ought to have been paid. In the original assessment this interest had not been charged.

( 7 ) AFTER hearing the representations of the assessee as aforesaid the Income-tax Officer passed an order under Section 154 on the 16th November, 1965. Under this order the sum of Rs. 51,165 paid as wealth-tax was disallowed as a deduction. This was done on the basis of a decision of the Kerala High Court in the case of Southern India Tea Estates Co. Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income-tax [1964] 51 1tr 47. The Income-tax Officer further rectified the order of assessment by adding interest under Section 18a (7), This amount was calculated at Rs. 7,173. 63.

( 8 ) AGGRIEVED by this order of rectification the assessee appealed to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. The contentions of the assessee in respect of the disallowance of the said sum of Rs. 51,165 paid on account of wealth-tax were accepted by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, who followed a subsequent decision of this court in the case of Commissioner of Income-tax v. Standard Vacuum Oil Co. Ltd. (later reported in [1965] 57 ITR 384 (Cal) ). It was laid down in this decision that the amount paid on account of wealth-tax could be claimed by way of deduction for the computation of income-tax. The Appellate Assistant

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