Estate Duty Act-Scope of the word 'Information ' in Sec. 59(B). - Income Tax - 1591/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1591/CBDT Dated: January 29, 1985 The Public Accounts Committee in para 1.118 of their 178th report have made the following recommendations/observations:- PARA 1.118 U/s.59(B) of the Estate Duty Act an assessment can be reopened if the Controller of Estate Duty has in consequence of any information in his possession reason to believe that there has been some escapement of estate duty. The provision is analogous to the provision contained in Sec.147(b) of the I.T.Act. It has been held that information may be as to a fact or as to the state of law. In the context of Boards Instructions of November 1976 about the reopening of Estate Duty assessments a plea was also raised that the assessments could not be reopened because the Supreme Court had held in the Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society's case that the opinion of an audit party would not an 'information' on a point of law. Actually in that case the Supreme court had drawn a distinction between the source of the communication and the communication and held for a communication to be information on a point of law its contents must be law which means a legislative enactment or a determination by a judicial or a quasijudicial body. In other words communications from non-judicial bodies like the Ministry of Law, the C.B.D.T. or the revenue audit would be information on a point of law only if the content was law. The Ministry of law to whom this point was referred also draw attention to the Supreme Courts observation in that case that "that part of the note of an audit party which mentions the law which escaped the notice of the I.T.O. constitutes information within the meaning of sec.147(b) ". A communication pointing out a statutory provision which has been overlooked might constitute information on a point of law and the fact that the communication has emanated from the revenue audit would not make any difference. 2. Keeping in view the above observations of the Public Accounts Committee the matter was referred to the Ministry of Law for their advice. Ministry of Law's advice dated 20-10-84 on the matter is reproduced below: "Para 1.118 of the PAC's report as reproduced above refers to the opinion given by this Ministry regarding the decision of the Supreme Court in Indian Newspaper Society's case. Referring to the observations contained in that judgement, we had stated that communication pointing out a statutory provision which has been overlooked might constitute "information" on a point of law and the fact that the communication has emanated from the Revenue Audit would not make any difference. It is confirmed that the above interpretation is correct and can be accepted. 3. One copy each of Boards instruction of November, 1976(viz.F.No.309/16/76-ED dated 5th November, 1976) and Ministry of Laws earlier opinion dated 22-6-83 referred to in para 1.118 of 178 the report of the PAC (1983-84) are enclosed for ready reference as Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively. 4. The Board desire that the contents of the recommendations/observations of the 178th report of the PAC and the above opinion of the Ministry of Law dated 20-10-1984 may be brought to the notice of all Officers working in your charge for their guidance in the matter.