Refund with interest on reduced estate duty assessment applies despite prior assessment date, as post-reference entitlement survives the savings clause.

An amended estate duty refund provision allowing interest applied where the High Court reduced the assessment on reference, even though the original assessment predated the amendment. The savings clause did not protect the revenue from the amended refund-with-interest rule because the entitlement to interest arose only after the reference succeeded, as a post-reference consequence rather than a pre-commencement accrued right. The refusal to pay interest was therefore unjustified, and the assessee was entitled to refund of the overpaid duty with interest as allowed by the Controller.

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Issues: Whether interest was payable on the estate duty overpaid after the assessment was reduced on reference to the High Court, and whether the savings provision in the amending Act excluded the application of the amended refund-with-interest provision to the case.

Analysis: The amended provision governing refund of overpaid estate duty authorised refund with such interest as the Controller may allow where the assessment was reduced as a result of a reference to the High Court. Although the amendment was prospective and the savings clause preserved pending appeals and related proceedings as if the amendment had not been passed, the right to claim refund with interest arose only when the High Court reduced the assessment on reference. That right was therefore a post-reference consequence and not a pre-commencement accrued right protected by the savings clause. The fact that the original assessment had been completed before the amendment came into force did not prevent the assessee from invoking the amended provision once the reference succeeded.

Conclusion: The refusal to pay interest was not justified. The assessee was entitled to refund of the overpaid estate duty with interest as the Controller might allow.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded and the impugned orders refusing interest were set aside, with a direction to pay interest on the refunded amount.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an amended refund provision becomes operative during pending proceedings, the right to claim interest on overpaid duty accrues only when the higher forum reduces the assessment on reference, and such post-reference relief is not barred by a savings clause preserving earlier pending appeals.

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