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2013 (6) TMI 135 - SC - Indian LawsDebut recovery - auction - Whether Section 29 of the RDDB Act do not apply the Income Tax Rules in the Second Schedule of the Income Tax Act to the recovery proceedings under RDDB Act with full force and that the expression 'as far as possible' appearing in Section 29 vests the Recovery Officer with discretion to apply the said Rules depending upon the fact situation of each case. - held that:- Section 29 of the RDDB Act incorporates the provisions of the Rules found in the Second Schedule to the Income Tax Act for purposes of realisation of the dues by the Recovery Officer under the RDDB Act. The expressions "as far as possible" and "with necessary modifications" appearing in Section 29 have been used to take care of situations where certain provisions under the Income Tax Rules may have no application on account of the scheme under the RDDB Act being different from that of the Income Tax Act or the Rules framed thereunder. The provisions of the Rules, it is manifest, from a careful reading of Section 29 are attracted only in so far as the same deal with recovery of debts under the Act with the modification that the 'amount of debt' referred to in the Rules is deemed to be one under the RDDB Act. For instance Rules 86 and 87 under the Income Tax Act do not have any application to the provisions of the RDDB Act, while Rules 57 and 58 of the said Rules in the Second Schedule deal with the process of recovery of the amount due and present no difficulty in enforcing them for recoveries under the RDDB Act. Suffice it to say that the use of the words "as far as possible" in Section 29 of RDDB Act simply indicate that the provisions of the Income Tax Rules are applicable except such of them as do not have any role to play in the matter of recovery of debts recoverable under the RDDB Act. The argument that the use of the words "as far as possible" in Section 29 is meant to give discretion to the Recovery Officer to apply the said Rules or not to apply the same in specific fact situations has not impressed us and is accordingly rejected. No reason hold that Rules 57 and 58 of the Income Tax Rules are anything but mandatory in nature, so that a breach of the requirements under those Rules will render the auction non-est in the eyes of law. There is, in our opinion, no doubt that there is an apparent conflict between the decisions upon which reliance was placed by learned counsel for the parties. But having regard to the view that we have taken on the question of the validity of this auction itself, we do not consider it necessary to make a reference to a larger bench to resolve the conflict. The cleavage in the judicial opinion is for the present case only of academic importance, hence need not be addressed by us or by a larger bench for the present. - Decided against the appellant.
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