Final supervisory power under income-tax law cannot be reopened by successor commissioner; later demand notice was without jurisdiction.

Section 33A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 conferred a final supervisory power on the Commissioner when he stayed recovery of assessed tax, and no express provision allowed him or his successor to review, modify, recall, or correct that order. Once exercised, the Commissioner became functus officio, so an inherent power of reconsideration could not be implied. Section 35 could not be used to reopen the earlier order, because it permits correction of obvious mistakes and not a substantive reversal of a deliberate decision. On that reasoning, the subsequent notice demanding immediate payment of tax was without jurisdiction and was liable to be set aside.

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Issues: Whether the Commissioner, or his successor, had power to review, modify, recall, or correct an order passed under section 33A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, and whether the subsequent notice demanding immediate payment of tax was without jurisdiction.

Analysis: The Commissioner's order staying recovery of the assessed tax was treated as an order made under section 33A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. The power conferred by that section was held to be final when exercised, and no provision in the Act authorised the Commissioner, or his successor, to review or modify his own order. The Court rejected the contention that such a power could be implied as an inherent jurisdiction, holding that once the Commissioner acted under section 33A he became functus officio. The Court also held that the order was not a nullity merely because it extended the time for payment beyond the stage urged by the revenue, and that the attempt to invoke section 35 as a power to undo the earlier order was impermissible because it would amount to a reappreciation and reversal of a deliberate decision, not the correction of an obvious mistake apparent from the record.

Conclusion: The successor Commissioner had no jurisdiction to cancel or vary the earlier order under section 33A, and the notice demanding payment was illegal and liable to be set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Income-tax Act confers a specific final supervisory power on the Commissioner under section 33A, that authority cannot be revisited or overridden by the Commissioner or his successor in the absence of an express statutory provision for review or modification, and section 35 cannot be used to achieve a substantive reconsideration of the original order.

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