Retrospective statutory appeal rights rejected where appeal provision was limited to certified cases and could not disturb final orders.

A statutory appeal to His Majesty in Council under section 66A was confined to cases certified by the High Court as fit for appeal, and the provision was not read as extending to all cases otherwise appealable under the Code. The provision was also not treated as retrospective, because it would unsettle the finality of orders already final when it came into force, and no clear legislative intention supported that result. On that basis, no statutory right of appeal was available against the pre-Act orders, and the petitions were not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether an appeal lay to His Majesty in Council from a High Court order on a reference under section 66(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, only if the case satisfied section 109(c) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and whether section 66A inserted by the Indian Income-tax (Amendment) Act, 1926 applied retrospectively to orders made before 1 April 1926.

Analysis: The statutory language of section 66A confined the appeal to cases certified by the High Court to be fit for appeal to His Majesty in Council, using the same limiting expression as section 109(c) and, by the qualifying words in sub-section (3), excluding reliance on section 110. The provision was not construed as extending appeals to all cases otherwise appealable under the Code. As to retrospectivity, a provision that would destroy the finality of orders already final when the Act came into force affects existing rights and cannot be applied retrospectively unless the statute clearly so provides. No such clear indication or necessary intendment appeared in section 66A, which was also framed on the assumption that the reference would be heard by not less than two judges under the new section.

Conclusion: No statutory right of appeal existed for the petitioners against the pre-Act orders, and no special ground for exercise of the Prerogative was shown; the petitions were therefore not maintainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory right of appeal will not be read retrospectively so as to disturb the finality of orders already final unless the legislature clearly so enacts, and where the appeal provision is expressly limited to cases certified as fit for appeal, that limitation governs the scope of the remedy.

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