TMI Blog2002 (11) TMI 84X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... but will apply only to repeal. In the present case penal provision was completely omitted, therefore, it would be considered as if it had never been in the statute book and for the same no prosecution could be launched or continued. In view of the aforesaid legal position about the effect of applicability of the Amendment Act of 1987 omitting the provision 276B from the statute book, the applicants could not have been held guilty of the offence on the date of delivery of judgment by the trail court on April 12, 1996. On that date, the act of not deducting and not depositing tax deducted at source, was not an offence and for this only penalty was prescribed. Therefore, conviction and sentence of the applicants as imposed by the trial court i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rest to Shri Dayanand Mishra, Shri Rajendra S. Bhandari, Meja Vaidya Sports, Neeta Lonia, Rashi Khandelwal, Sanjeev Laxmikant Choudhari, Shyam Kumar Agrawal and Smt. Shantabai Dharamchand, for the assessment year 1986-87 but failed to deduct tax at source and deposit the same in the Government treasury within time. To prove its case, the prosecution has examined solitary witness N. Ahirwal in place of original complainant Shri Nav Rajan Gupta, who died during the pendency of the complaint. The applicants have submitted before the court that there was no valid sanction as per the provisions under section 279 of the Act because the authority was not apprised of the fact that the tax deducted at source deposits or Form No. 15A were ultimatel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... penalty under the Act and this has been explained by the respondent/Department Circular No. 551, dated January 23, 1990, which reads as under: "17.2 Substitution Of a new section for section 276B to exclude failure to deduct tax at source from prosecution provisions and to provide prosecution only for failure to pay tax deducted at source to the Government.--Under the old provisions of section 276B, the following defaults were liable to prosecution: (i) failure to deduct tax at source under the provisions of Chapter XVIIB; (ii) failure to pay to the Government the tax so deducted at source." Section 80E of the Act has been omitted by amending Act of 1987. Therefore, reference to section 276B is no longer necessary. Failure to deduc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to obliterate it from the statute book as completely as if it had never been passed, and the statute must be considered as a law that never existed. To this rule, an exception is engrafted by the provisions of section 6(1). If a provision of a statute is unconditionally omitted without a saving clause in favour of pending proceedings, all actions must stop where the omission finds them, and if final relief has not been granted before the omission goes into effect, it cannot be granted afterwards. Savings of the nature contained in section 6 or in special Acts may modify the position. Thus the operation of repeal or deletion as to the future and the past largely depends on the savings applicable. In a case where a particular provision in a s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n of section 6 of the General Clauses Act, pending proceedings will be saved in the absence of any specific provision in the amended Act, since the amended Act is silent about retrospective applicability. The Supreme Court has answered this, holding that, section 6 of the General Clauses Act will not apply to omission of any provision in the Act but will apply only to repeal. In the present case penal provision was completely omitted, therefore, it would be considered as if it had never been in the statute book and for the same no prosecution could be launched or continued. In view of the aforesaid legal position about the effect of applicability of the Amendment Act of 1987 omitting the provision 276B from the statute book, the applicants ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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