MALIK, CJ.:- This case has been referred to a Full Bench on a difference of opinion.

2. Proviso (2) to S.66-A, Indian Income-Tax Act is to the effect that when there is a difference of opinion between the Judges hearing a reference the point of law upon which they differ and the case shall then be heard upon that point only by one or more of the other Judges of the High Court and such point shall be decided according to the opinion of the majority of the Judges who have heard the case including those who first heard it. By reason of this proviso we had some doubts whether one of us who was a member of the Division Bench should be on this Full Bench but Mr. Pathak on behalf of the assessee has urged that the proviso only refers to a case where a point of law has been referred for decision and, in such a case, the opinion of the Judge to whom the point has been referred has to go back to the Bench which had heard it and the order has to be passed by it. But that where the whole case has been referred to a new Bench this proviso does not apply and that we can hear the whole reference afresh and give our own decision. This view has been supported by Mr. Jagdish Swarup, counsel