1. SAEEDUZZAMAN SIDDIQUI, J.--This reference application under section 136(2) of the Income Tax Ordinance 1979, is filed by the Department in this Court directly upon refusal of the Tribunal to state the question and refer it to High Court on the ground that the application was time-barred.
2. The learned Counsel for the respondent raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of this application and urged that section 136(2) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1979 did not apply in the present case. It is urged that assessment proceedings related to the period prior to the enforcement of Ordinance of 1979 and as such the present reference will be governed by section 66 of the Income---tax Act, 1922 which did not provide for filing of an application to the High Court directly in the event of its dismissal by the Tribunal as time-barred.
3. It is not disputed before us that the application filed by the department before the Tribunal for making a reference to this Court was filed after 60 days which is the period prescribed under section 66 of the repealed Act. It was accordingly, rightly rejected by the Tribunal as time-barred. In these circumstances the present reference under section 136 is not maintainable. The learned Counsel has invited our attention to the decision in the case of the Commissioner of Income-tax v.
4. Asbestos Cement Industries Ltd. 1988 PTD 227 in which in similar circumstances the application filed under section 136(2) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1979 was held to be not maintainable. We are in respectful agreement with the view expressed in the above case and we accordingly dismiss the application as not maintainable.