Accrued procedural rights survive repeal where a saving clause preserves them, keeping the earlier reference remedy available.

A revisional order made while the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 was in force gave the assessee an accrued procedural right to seek a reference under section 60, and that remedy was preserved by the savings clause in section 99(1) of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1991. The repeal did not extinguish rights already accrued or liabilities incurred under the earlier Act, and the deeming provision could not override that saving effect absent a clear legislative intention to do so. The assessee's proper remedy therefore remained a reference under the 1950 Act, and the order rejecting the reference application as not maintainable was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether, after repeal of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 and its replacement by the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1991, the assessee's remedy against a revisional order passed before the new Act came into force was still a reference under section 60 of the 1950 Act or whether the remedy was a revision under section 78 of the 1991 Act.

Analysis: The revisional order was passed while the 1950 Act was in force, and the right to invoke the reference procedure under section 60 arose immediately on that order being made. Section 99(1) of the 1991 Act repeals the earlier Act but expressly preserves its previous operation and any right, title, obligation, or liability already accrued or incurred. The deeming provision in the proviso is subject to those accrued rights and does not evince an intention to destroy them. The remedy therefore had to be determined with reference to the law in force when the order was passed, and the Commissioner's view that the reference application had become not maintainable was inconsistent with the saving provision.

Conclusion: The assessee's remedy remained under section 60 of the 1950 Act, and the order rejecting the reference application as not maintainable was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a revisional order creates an accrued procedural right of challenge under the repealed Act, a saving provision preserving accrued rights continues that remedy notwithstanding repeal, unless the new enactment clearly indicates an intention to extinguish it.

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