Unrecognised qualification and mistake of law can justify cancellation of an income-tax practitioner licence.

A licence to act as an income-tax practitioner may be cancelled where enrolment was based on a qualification from a body not shown to be a recognised university or otherwise approved by law. The HC treated the original enrolment as having been made under a mistake of law, and held that cancellation correcting that error was lawful because the institution was only a company registered under the Indian Companies Act and no manifest injustice was demonstrated. The challenge therefore failed, and the cancellation was upheld as a valid correction of an invalid basis of registration.

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Issues: Whether the cancellation of the petitioner's licence as an income-tax practitioner was justified where the degree on which enrolment was based was granted by a body not constituted under an Act of Parliament and not shown to be recognised by any university, the University Grants Commission, or the Central Government.

Analysis: The degree-holder institution was only a company registered under the Indian Companies Act and had no demonstrated legal recognition as a university for the purpose of conferring a valid qualification. The petitioner had been enrolled under a mistake of law, and the Income-tax Commissioner's later decision cancelled the licence by correcting that mistake. The record disclosed no legal or manifest injustice resulting from the cancellation.

Conclusion: The cancellation of the petitioner's licence was upheld and the challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The petition was rejected because the licence had been granted without a valid legal basis and its cancellation was treated as a lawful correction of that error.

Ratio Decidendi: A licence granted under a mistake of law, based on an unrecognised qualification, may be validly cancelled when no manifest injustice is shown.

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