Confidential income-tax assessment records are not freely admissible; certified copies need a statutory right to inspect originals.

Certified copies of confidential income-tax assessment records are not admissible in evidence unless the person seeking them has a statutory right to inspect the originals. The Calcutta HC noted that assessment records were confidential under the Income-tax Act, intended to secure frank disclosure by assessees, and that a document's status as a public document does not give unrestricted access to it. Under the Evidence Act, a certified copy is admissible only where inspection of the original is legally available. On that basis, copies obtained from the department in proceedings between co-assessee partners were rightly rejected.

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Issues: Whether certified copies of income-tax assessment orders, obtained from the Income-tax Department, were admissible in evidence in proceedings between co-assessee partners, having regard to the confidentiality of assessment records and the provisions governing public documents and certified copies.

Analysis: Assessment records were treated as confidential under Section 54 of the Income-tax Act, 1922, the object being to secure frank disclosure by assessees without fear of later use against them. The Court held that the mere fact that a document is a public document does not mean that every person has a right of access to it. Under Sections 76 and 77 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, a certified copy is admissible only where the person seeking it has a right to inspect the original. As there was no statutory right under the Income-tax Act to inspect the original assessment records, the assessee's copy obtained under departmental instructions did not become a certified copy admissible in proof of the contents of the confidential record.

Conclusion: The certified copies of the assessment orders were inadmissible in evidence and were rightly rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Certified copies of confidential income-tax assessment records are not admissible under the Evidence Act unless the person seeking them has a statutory right to inspect the original records.

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