Mistake apparent from the record requires a patent error, not debatable statutory interpretation, under rectification provisions.

Rectification was confined to mistakes apparent from the record, so an error requiring detailed statutory construction or involving two possible views could not be corrected under section 36. The Court treated the alleged misapplication of section 12 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act by reference to section 24 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, as a debatable interpretative issue, not a patent mistake, especially because the provisions were differently worded and operated in different statutory schemes. Rectification was therefore not permissible, and the assessee succeeded.

---

---

Issues: Whether an order of rectification could be sustained on the ground that the Agricultural Income-tax Officer had allegedly misconstrued section 12 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act by applying the interpretation of section 24 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922.

Analysis: Rectification under section 36 is confined to mistakes apparent from the record. A mistake that can be established only by detailed construction of a statutory provision, or where two views are possible, is not an error apparent on the record. The interpretative issue whether section 12 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act is identical in scope to section 24 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, was not self-evident and required deeper examination; the very fact that the question had earlier been referred to a larger Bench showed that it was not a patent mistake. The two provisions were also not identically worded, and the ratio under the Indian Income-tax Act could not be straightaway transplanted to the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, which dealt with a different subject-matter and structure.

Conclusion: The alleged error was not a mistake apparent from the record, and rectification under section 36 was not permissible.

Final Conclusion: The rectification order could not be sustained, and the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: An error is not rectifiable as a mistake apparent from the record if it requires long-drawn reasoning or debatable interpretation of the governing provision, especially where the statutory scheme differs materially from the provision relied upon as a precedent.

---