Meenakshi Mills, Madurai vs The Commissioner Of Income-Tax,Madras on 26 September, 1956
In Sree Meenakshi Mills Ltd. v. Income-tax Commr, Madras, AIR 1957 SC 49 their Lordships pointed out how a mixed question of law and fact has to be approached. Their Lordships pointed out that where a finding is given on a question of fact based upon an inference from facts, that is not always a question of law. The proposition that an inference from facts is one of law will be correct in its application to mixed questions of law and fact but not to pure questions of fact. Inferences from facts may themselves be inferences of fact and not of law, and such inferences are not open to review by the Court. Inference from facts would be a question of fact or of law according as the point for determination is one of pure fact or mixed question of law and fact. When the point for determination is a mixed question of law and fact, while the finding of the Tribunal on the facts found is final its decision as to the legal effect of those findings is a question of law.