Sales tax record confidentiality is qualified where no express bar prevents civil court summons or production in evidence.

Section 57(1) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was construed as protecting sales tax records from voluntary disclosure by the department, but not as barring a civil court from summoning or admitting those records in evidence. The provision was read in contrast with section 54(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, which expressly prohibits court-compelled production, and section 57(2) was treated as only a saving clause. The confidentiality privilege was therefore held to be qualified rather than absolute, and court-directed production was permitted where the statute contained no express bar.

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Issues: Whether section 57(1) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, merely protects sales tax records from voluntary disclosure by the department or also prohibits a civil court from summoning and receiving such records in evidence.

Analysis: The confidentiality clause in section 57(1) was construed in its own language and in contrast with section 54(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, which expressly bars courts from requiring production of the protected records. Since section 57(1) contains no similar prohibition directed against courts, the provision was held not to extend to involuntary disclosure on summons. Section 57(2) was treated as only a saving clause and not as an enlargement of the prohibition in section 57(1). Support was taken from the view that a similarly worded sales tax rule in Kerala only prevented voluntary disclosure by the officer concerned.

Conclusion: Section 57(1) does not bar a civil court from calling for and admitting the records in evidence. The privilege is only qualified, not absolute, and the revision petition succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory confidentiality provision that merely declares specified particulars to be confidential does not, without express words, prevent a civil court from summoning or requiring production of those records; such a clause is confined to voluntary disclosure unless the statute specifically prohibits court-compelled production.

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