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1961 (12) TMI 3 - SUPREME COURTWhether under section 54(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, no court shall be entitled to require the appellant to produce before it the said documents as they formed part of the record of an assessment proceeding taken before the relevant income-tax authority? Held that:- We cannot accept the argument of learned counsel that the order directing the production of the documents was made under section 94 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and that that section is not hit by the prohibition under section 54 of the Income-tax Act. This argument is advanced on the basis that the non abstante clause in sub-section (1) of section 54 of the Income-tax Act only relates to the Indian Evidence Act and not to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The non abstante clause cannot restrict the embargo placed on the court under section 54 of the Income-tax Act : the said clause only operates to make it clear that the said general ban prevails notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Indian Evidence Act. That apart, section 54 of the Income-tax Act contains in effect an unconditional prohibition against a public servant producing any such document, and that prohibition does not exclude any criminal process from its operation. We, therefore, hold that there are no merits in this contention either. Appeal allowed.
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