Tax payment condition for appeals applies at admission stage, not necessarily on the date of presentation.

An appeal against a penalty order under the Income-tax Act was treated as maintainable where the tax had been paid before the appeal was taken up for admission, even though payment had not been made on the date of presentation. The statutory phrase that no appeal shall lie unless tax has been paid was read as governing maintainability at the admission stage, not as fixing the date of filing, because the Act distinguished between presentation and admission. A recital in the prescribed appeal form could not override the statutory condition. The objection to competence therefore failed, and the appeal was regarded as properly entertainable once payment was completed.

---

---

Issues: Whether an appeal against an order imposing penalty under section 46(1) of the Income-tax Act was incompetent because the tax had not been paid on the date the appeal was presented, where payment was completed before the appeal was taken up for admission.

Analysis: The first proviso to section 30(1) barred an appeal from lying against an order under section 46(1) unless the tax had been paid, but the language did not say that the appeal could not be presented unless payment had already been made. A distinction was drawn between presentation of an appeal and its admission, and the wording of section 30(2) showed that the statute itself recognised that distinction. The reference to the word "lie" was treated as supporting admissibility in the sense of maintainability, not as fixing the date of presentation. The prescribed appeal form was held not to control the statutory condition, as non-compliance with a recital in the form could not override the Act.

Conclusion: The appeal was competent because the relevant requirement was satisfied by the time the appeal was considered for admission, and the objection that payment had not been made on the date of presentation failed.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered in favour of the assessee, and the appellate order treating the appeal as incompetent was set aside in principle.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute provides that no appeal shall lie unless tax has been paid, the condition governs maintainability at the stage of admission and not merely the date of presentation, unless the statute expressly says otherwise.

---