Informer reward claims require a legal right; writ relief was unavailable absent any statutory obligation.

No writ could issue to compel payment of a share in assets discovered from information supplied to the Income-tax Department because neither the Income-tax Act, 1961 nor the rules created any statutory liability to reward an informer. The claimant was treated as an informer seeking a prize, not as a person enforcing an existing legal right, and the Court doubted whether the asserted arrangement could amount to an enforceable contract. The claim was therefore not maintainable in writ jurisdiction.

---

---

Issues: Whether a writ could issue to compel payment of a percentage of the monetary value of assets discovered on the basis of information supplied to the Income-tax Department, in the absence of any statutory provision or enforceable legal right.

Analysis: No provision under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the rules framed thereunder created any statutory liability on the Department to pay the informer a share of the assets discovered. The petitioner stood only in the position of an informer, analogous to a person supplying intelligence to police agencies, and the claim was treated as a demand for a prize rather than enforcement of a legal right. The Court also expressed doubt whether such an arrangement could amount to a contract enforceable in law.

Conclusion: No writ could be issued on the petition, and the claim was not enforceable in writ jurisdiction.

---