Saving clause preserved pending composition applications, but the statutory one-year limit barred extension to later assessment years.

A pending application for composition made while the earlier provision was still in force was preserved by the general saving clause on repeal, so it remained valid for assessment year 1966-67 and the cancellation of that benefit for that year was unsustainable. However, the composition scheme was limited by statute to twelve months at a time, so an administrative practice treating it as continuing could not extend the benefit to assessment years 1967-68 and 1968-69. Relief was therefore confined to restoring composition for 1966-67, while the later reassessment proceedings and demands were left undisturbed.

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Issues: (i) Whether the repeal of the composition provision by the amending Act affected the petitioners' pending applications for composition in respect of assessment year 1966-67; (ii) whether the composition permission could survive for assessment years 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Issue (i): Whether the repeal of the composition provision by the amending Act affected the petitioners' pending applications for composition in respect of assessment year 1966-67.

Analysis: The applications had been made while the earlier composition provision was in force and the assessment year 1966-67 had already commenced. The general saving provision preserved things done, rights accrued, and proceedings begun before the repeal took effect. On that basis, the pending applications were not displaced by the repeal, and the authority could not treat them as governed by the law introduced after repeal.

Conclusion: The petitioners were entitled to have the applications considered under the repealed provision for assessment year 1966-67, and the cancellation of that benefit for that year was unsustainable.

Issue (ii): Whether the composition permission could survive for assessment years 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Analysis: The earlier composition provision contemplated permission for only twelve months at a time. It could not, therefore, support a carry-forward benefit for subsequent assessment years beyond the year for which it was lawfully granted. The mistaken administrative practice of treating the permission as continuing for three years did not confer a legal right to composition for later years.

Conclusion: The petitioners were not entitled to relief for assessment years 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Final Conclusion: The challenge succeeded only to the extent of restoring composition relief for assessment year 1966-67, while the demands and reassessment proceedings for the later assessment years remained undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A pending application and the right attached to an assessment year already commenced are preserved by the general saving clause on repeal, but a composition benefit limited by statute to one year cannot be extended to subsequent years by administrative mistake.

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