TMI Blog1964 (2) TMI 6X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The contention under this head also fails. The present cases are with reference to years 1940-48, that is before the accounting year ending on March 31, 1949. The assessments in these cases were carried on by the old officers under the old law and the Validating Act specifically validates such assessments. In these circumstances we have not been able to understand how it can be said that these assessments have not been validated by the Validating Act. The contention under this head must, therefore, also fail. Appeal dismissed. - C.A. 316 OF 1962 - - - Dated:- 20-2-1964 - Judge(s) : P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR., K. N. WANCHOO., K. C. DAS GUPTA., J. C. SHAH., N. RAJAGOPALA AYYANGAR JUDGMENT The judgment of the court was delivered by WANCHOO J.---This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. It raises the question of the validity of certain provisions of the Indore Industrial Tax Rules, 1927 (hereinafter referred to as the Tax Rules) and assessments made thereunder for the years 1940 to 1948. The appellant is a cotton mill and in 1927 a tax was imposed on cotton mills in Indore in Holkar State by the then Ruler in respect of pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n view of the merger of the Holkar State of Madhya Bharat, some of the provisions of the Tax Rules had to be changed to bring them into line with the new set-up. Consequently, on December 28, 1949, the Government of Madhya Bharat issued a notification under rule 18 of the Tax Rules purporting to make rules under rule 17 thereof. These rules made certain amendments in the Tax Rules. It is not necessary to refer to all the amendments as we are concerned here only with three amendments. The first amendment was that instead of the board making the assessment, the assessment was to be made by an assessing officer. The second amendment was that the appeal from the assessing officer was to be heard by an officer appointed from time to time by the Minister-in-charge of the Finance Department in place of the Member-in-charge of Commerce and Industry Department. The third amendment was with respect to second appeals. The amendment provided that instead of the Government hearing second appeals which under the old provision lay both on facts and law, second appeals thereafter were to be heard on a point of law by the High Court. Then came the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950, and the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 13 of the Finance Act, all proceedings taken, assessments made and other acts and things done (including orders made) by or before any officer, authority, tribunal or court acting or purporting to act under the relevant Madhya Bharat law in connection with the levy, assessment and collection of any tax due, under any such law in respect of the relevant period shall be deemed always to have been valid and shall not be called in question on the ground only that such proceedings were not taken, assessments were not made or acts or things were not done by or before the corresponding officer, authority, tribunal or court referred to in the said proviso." Section 4 of the Validating Act further provided that "if immediately before the commencement of this Act, any proceedings of the nature referred to in section 3 are pending before any officer, authority, tribunal or court acting or purporting to act under the relevant Madhya Bharat law, such proceedings may, notwithstanding anything contained in the first proviso to sub-section (1) of section 13 of the Finance Act, be continued and completed in accordance with the provisions of the relevant Madhya Bharat law, and the provisions of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e the power to modify the parent law under which the rules have to be framed. We do not think it necessary for present purposes to consider this argument, for we are of opinion that the amendments which were made in the Tax Rules on December 28 1949, can be justified on the basis of Act 1 of 1948, which was passed on Decemher 13, 1948, by the Rajpramukh. That Act, as already indicated, provided by section 5 that the Government, by notification published in the Government Gazette, may make regulations for the peace and good government of all the territories which had been included in the State of Madhya Bharat or which may be included in it under the provisions of section 3 of the Act. It also provided for the repeal or amendment by regulation of any law already in force in any State before its administration was taken over or before it was, as the case may be, merged in the United States. The Government had therefore the power to amend the Tax Rules under section 5(1) read with section 5(3) of Act of 1948. The notification of December 28, 1949, by which the amendments were made was published in the Gazette of the Madhya Bharat State and the amendments were made by the Government. I ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on. We therefore reject the contention under this head. Re. (2). Then it is urged that even if the amendments to the Tax Rules are good, they could not affect vested rights of appeal provided under the old law before the amendments and therefore in so far as the amendments affect this vested right, they are of no effect. Now it is well settled that even a vested right of appeal can be taken away by express legislation or by legislation which, though it may not expressly repeal the vested right of appeal, has the effect of such repeal by necessary implication. We have already pointed out that in view of the coming into existence of the new State of Madhya Bharat, amendments to the Tax Rules had become necessary in order to bring them into line with the structure of the new State. The three main amendments made in the Tax Rules have already been set out by us. Learned counsel for the appellant does not attack two of them, namely, those relating to the assessment officer and the first appeal provided by the amendments. The attack is on the amendment of rule 13 of the Tax Rules providing for a second appeal. Under the old Rules, a second appeal lay to the Government both on fact ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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