Substituted statutory provision and civil court summons power: omitted confidentiality bar did not survive absent pleaded public-interest privilege.

Substitution of section 53 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act by Act 29 of 1976 was treated as replacing the earlier provision in full, so the amended text governed pending matters. Because the new wording omitted the word "court" from the confidentiality bar, section 6 of the General Clauses Act did not preserve the earlier restriction in the same way as a repeal. On that construction, the civil court was not excluded from summoning returns, documents and assessment records from the agricultural income-tax authorities unless a privilege in public interest was specifically claimed. The substituted provision therefore left the civil court's power to require production intact in the absence of pleaded privilege.

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Issues: Whether substitution of section 53 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1957 by Act 29 of 1976 removed the bar on civil courts requiring production of returns, documents and assessment records from the agricultural income-tax authorities.

Analysis: The substituted provision was treated as replacing the earlier provision in toto, and the amended text omitted the word "court" from the confidentiality bar. On that construction, section 6 of the General Clauses Act did not govern the substitution in the manner applicable to a repeal. The amended provision therefore had to be read as operative when the proceedings were pending, and the civil court's power to summon the materials was not excluded unless a privilege in public interest was actually claimed.

Conclusion: The bar on the civil court no longer survived under the substituted section 53, and the civil court could summon the assessee's returns, papers and documents in the absence of a pleaded privilege.

Ratio Decidendi: When an existing statutory provision is substituted by a new provision, the substituted text is to be read as replacing the old provision for pending matters, and an omitted statutory bar ceases to operate unless the new provision preserves it expressly.

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