TMI Blog1974 (2) TMI 4X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... section 256 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for short, " the Act ", and section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the prayer therein is : " It is therefore prayed that this hon'ble court be pleased to delete the sentence occurring in para. 4 in the judgment, namely: - 'Imposition of penalty by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner was therefore justified' or to clarify that this court had not intended by the said statement to justify the imposition of penalty even if the Explanation applied and that it is open to the Appellate Tribunal to consider the appeal, regarding the sustainability of the imposition of penalty under the Explanation. " The judgment in which the sentence sought to be deleted occurred was pronounced in expressing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ccrued to the assessee. The vested right is the immunity from the levy of penalty imposable under the circumstances adumbrated in the Explanation. If so, the well-settled rule of construction precludes us from construing the Explanation as retrospective unless the amending Act expressly or by necessary implication makes it retrospective. The assessment year in the instant case is the year 1963-64 and the Explanation to section 271(1)(c) is not applicable to the facts of the present case. In the view we have taken, it is unnecessary to go into the question raised by the assessee regarding the loss of books. The order of penalty is quashed and we direct the Income-tax Officer to refund the amount, if collected from the assessee. " It was in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sis of this sentence we are asked to hold that we also decided that the assessee is liable to be penalised, a question which was not before us, a question which we should not have considered, a question, which we think, we have no jurisdiction to consider ; and a question which we did not decide. We will extract paragraph 4 of the judgment in view of the elaborate arguments that have been advanced before us to make the point that we have stated clear: "The year of assessment with which we are concerned is 1963-64. It is admitted that the return filed by the assessee for the year is the one dated September 8, 1966. The amount of income disclosed by the return was only Rs. 13,746. The assessment was completed fixing the total income at Rs. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sioner of Income-tax v. Vedlapatla Veera Venkataramiah would apply for answering the question against the assessee. The sentence " Imposition of penalty by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner was, therefore, justified " which torn from its context and read by itself without reference to the question referred to us, the answer that we have given to the question, and the reasons that we have given for giving that answer may convey an entirely different meaning than that it was intended to convey. The Inspecting Assistant Commissioner has held that the Explanation applied to the case of the assessee. He further held that the extenuating circumstances that an assessee should plead to get over the rigour of the Explanation had not been made ou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nature in answering a question referred to us at the instance of the assessee or the department and so we have no inherent powers arising from these provisions even if accepted cannot be a ground for rejecting the prayer in the petition. The power we think we have is apart from the sections. Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not confer any inherent power on a court. The section only saves that power. The power was there even without the section particularly in a court of record which a High Court is and apart from the section what inherent power existed exists now and we have no doubt that as long as we follow the system of jurisprudence we have been following the law will continue to make that power available. Errors can cree ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... application when this court functions in its advisory jurisdiction in answering questions referred to it under the Income-tax Act. With utmost respect we are unable to accept this proposition. The question really is not whether section 151 in terms would apply or not. As we indicated earlier this court has the inherent jurisdiction to correct errors and omissions arising from accidental slips. We have no doubt that this inherent power exists in the court from the very nature of its constitution and purpose. It is paramount that court must do justice and if any errors arising from accidental slips or omissions creep into judgments, which can result in injustice, such errors must be removed. We allow this petition and delete the sentence ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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