9911796707
TMI Blog1971 (8) TMI 57X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -54 to 1968-69 from the Income-tax Officer, Ward C, who was the concerned assessing officer. No notice was given of this application to defendant No. 2, who is the petitioner in this court, but orders were passed calling upon the Income-tax Officer to produce the records. On July 9, 1970, the documents were produced by an inspector of the income-tax department. At that point the objection was raised by the defendants about the legality of the order calling for production of the documents and the power of the court to receive those documents. This objection was on the basis that there was a bar against production of these documents under the Income-tax Act, 1961. The objection was over-ruled by the learned trial judge and he held that the or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pter XXII, or in any record of any assessment proceeding, or any proceeding relating to recovery of a demand, prepared for the purposes of this Act, shall be treated as confidential, and notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1of 1872), no court shall, save as provided in this Act, be entitled to require any public servant to produce before it any such return, accounts, documents or record or any part of any such record, or to give evidence before it in respect thereof. (2) No public servant shall disclose any particulars contained in any such statement, return, accounts, documents, evidence, affidavit, deposition or record ......" In sub-section (3) of section 137 exceptions were provided. Exception (iv) may ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... may, in the opinion of the Board or other income-tax authority, be necessary for the purpose of enabling the officer, authority or body to perform his or its functions under that law. (b) where a person makes an application to the Commissioner in the prescribed form for any information relating to any assessee in respect of any assessment made under this Act or the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), on or after the 1st day of April, 1960, the Commissioner may, if he is satisfied that it is in the public interest so to do, furnish or cause to be furnished the information asked for in respect of that, assessment only and his decision in this behalf shall be final and shall not be called in question in any court of law. (2) Notwithsta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f section 137 from the statute, the restriction in respect of disclosure of information has been confined only in respect of the banking companies and none other. Three contentions were raised by Mr. Palit before me: (1) According to him, the bar under section l37 continues by virtue of section 6 of the General Clauses Act even after the omission of section 137 from the statute; (2) As a result of the notification under section 138(2) the ban has been made more rigorous; and (3) Under section 138(t) an application is to be made to the Commissioner and the Income-tax Officer has no jurisdiction to make any disposal. The scope of section 6 of the General Clauses Act is well known. Two decisions were placed before me by Mr. Palit in suppo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted under section 138(2) of the Act has now been limited only to the banking companies and there is no scope for the contention that by virtue of such notifications there can be any restriction upon disclosure qua the assessee in this case. That contention of Mr. Palit has, therefore, to be negatived. Now I shall come to the last contention raised in this case which is on the basis of the provision contained in section 138(1)(b) which I have already extracted. That provision is an enabling one and it is open to the Commissioner to make a disclosure to anybody if the terms contained in section 138(1)(b) are satisfied. That certainly does not cover a case of the present type when the court calls for certain papers for production. The ban aga ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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