Prospective construction of tax charging provisions excludes retrospective liability for deaths before the amendment

Section 24B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 created a new enforceable tax charge and was construed as prospective only because taxing provisions must impose liability in clear language and retrospectivity cannot be inferred from ambiguous words. The opening phrase "Where a person dies" was read as pointing to future deaths, and the surrounding amendment did not clearly extend the provision to estates of persons who had already died before the amendment. The provision was therefore held not to apply to a death occurring before 11 September 1933, and the reference was answered against the revenue.

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Issues: Whether Section 24B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, inserted by the Indian Income-tax (Second Amendment) Act, 1933, operated retrospectively so as to apply to the estate of a person who died before the amendment came into force.

Analysis: The liability introduced by Section 24B was treated as a new enforceable charge and not as a mere procedural machinery for collecting an already perfected liability. The section began with the words "Where a person dies", which were held to be more consistent with future deaths than with deaths that had already occurred. The Court applied the settled rule that a taxing provision must impose liability in clear and unambiguous language, and that retrospective effect should not be inferred where the statutory language is fairly capable of a prospective construction. The surrounding amendment provisions did not supply sufficient clarity to extend Section 24B to deaths occurring before the amendment.

Conclusion: Section 24B was held to be prospective only and not applicable to a death occurring before 11 September 1933; the reference was answered against the revenue.

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