Tax recovery inquiry powers allow summons for assessee attendance and document production in recovery proceedings.

Rule 83 of the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961 empowers a Tax Recovery Officer to exercise civil court-like powers in recovery inquiries, including receiving evidence, administering oaths, enforcing attendance and compelling production of documents. Read with Section 222 and the recovery scheme, this authority extends to seeking the assessee's personal attendance where relevant to inquiry into assets and information. The word "witness" does not exclude the assessee, and the distinction from Rule 73 was rejected because that rule concerns arrest and detention, not the recovery inquiry machinery. The summons was therefore treated as valid for recovery proceedings.

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Issues: Whether a Tax Recovery Officer acting under Rule 83 of the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961 can require the assessee's personal attendance and compel production of evidence and documents in recovery proceedings.

Analysis: Rule 83 confers on the Tax Recovery Officer the powers of a civil court while trying a suit for receiving evidence, administering oaths, enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling production of documents. Read with the scheme of the Second Schedule and Section 222 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, recovery proceedings include inquiry into the assessee's assets and relevant information. Section 136 further characterises proceedings before income-tax authorities as judicial proceedings. The distinction drawn from Rule 73 was rejected because Rule 73 concerns arrest and detention, whereas Rule 83 operates in the miscellaneous recovery machinery. The Court also held that the word 'witness' does not exclude the assessee himself when his attendance is sought for inquiry in recovery proceedings.

Conclusion: The Tax Recovery Officer is empowered to secure and enforce the personal attendance of the assessee under Rule 83 for the purpose of inquiry in recovery proceedings; the challenge to the summons failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the recovery machinery under the Second Schedule applies, a summons under Rule 83 may validly compel the assessee's personal attendance because the rule incorporates civil-court powers to enforce attendance and collect evidence for effective recovery inquiry.

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