Departmental appeal authority under the 1922 Income-tax Act was held to rest with the Commissioner, not the original assessing officer.

Under section 33(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, the power to decide whether to appeal against an Appellate Assistant Commissioner's order was treated as vested in the Commissioner, not in the individual Income-tax Officer who made the assessment. The statutory scheme was read as showing that appellate proceedings on behalf of the Revenue were coordinated through the Commissioner, because communication of the order, limitation for appeal, and related appellate and reference functions centred on him. Section 33(2), read with section 5(5), was construed as a directory provision governing departmental procedure, not a mandatory bar requiring the appeal to be filed only through the original assessing officer.

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Issues: Whether, under section 33(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against an order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner could validly be filed through an Income-tax Officer other than the officer who had made the assessment.

Analysis: The right to decide whether to appeal was held to vest in the Commissioner, not in the individual Income-tax Officer who had handled the assessment. The statutory scheme showed that the Commissioner represented the Revenue in appellate proceedings, since orders of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner were communicated to him, limitation for appeal ran from such communication, and related reference and further appellate powers were also conferred on him. Section 33(2) was construed as not using prohibitory or exclusive language. Read with section 5(5), it was treated as a provision governing convenient and expeditious conduct of departmental appeals, not as a mandatory restriction confining the appeal to the original assessing officer.

Conclusion: The appeal was properly filed and the question referred was answered in the affirmative.

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