Inherent powers under Section 151 CPC cannot be used to reopen or modify an earlier income-tax reference judgment.

Section 151 CPC preserves inherent powers to do justice, but it cannot be used to create a new procedural remedy or to bypass a specific procedure. An attempt to clarify, rectify or modify an earlier income-tax reference judgment under section 151 would in substance amount to review of that judgment, which was not permissible in this application. The court treated the requested relief as reopening a concluded controversy and held that any proper remedy, if available, had to be pursued elsewhere.

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Issues: Whether an application under section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 could be used to clarify, rectify or modify the earlier income-tax reference judgment so as to grant the benefit of section 11(1)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 151 preserves inherent powers to act ex debito justitiae, but it does not create a new power and cannot be invoked where the Code or the governing procedure provides otherwise. The earlier reference was decided in the court's advisory jurisdiction under the Income-tax Act, and the attempt to alter that decision through section 151 would in substance amount to a review of the judgment. The requested correction also concerned a controversy that could not be reopened in this application, and the proper remedy, if any, lay elsewhere.

Conclusion: Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 could not be invoked to grant the relief sought, and the application was rejected.

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