Summary tax recovery provisions are not exclusive unless the statute clearly bars ordinary civil remedies for arrears.

Section 32 of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1948 was treated as a summary recovery provision, not an exclusive code, because it authorises recovery as arrears of land revenue and fixes a limitation period but does not expressly or by necessary implication bar other remedies. Once assessment is made and demand is served, a debt arises in favour of the State, and in the absence of a statutory prohibition the State may recover that debt by ordinary legal proceedings, including a civil suit. The same approach was said to accord with the recovery provisions under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 and the Income-tax Act, 1961.

---

---

Issues: Whether section 32 of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1948 provides the exclusive mode for recovery of arrears of agricultural income-tax so as to bar a civil suit by the State.

Analysis: Section 32 authorises recovery of the tax or penalty as arrears of land revenue and fixes a limitation period for commencing recovery proceedings, but it does not state that the statutory mode is exclusive or that other remedies under general law are barred. Once assessment is made and demand is served, a debt arises in favour of the State, and in the absence of an express or necessarily implied prohibition the State may recover that debt by ordinary legal remedies, including a suit. The corresponding provisions under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 and the Income-tax Act, 1961 were treated as supporting the same principle that a summary recovery provision is not exhaustive unless the statute so provides.

Conclusion: Section 32 does not exclude a civil suit for recovery of the tax arrears, and the suit filed by the State was maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The statutory recovery machinery was held to be cumulative rather than exclusive, so the State's ordinary remedy to sue for the debt remained available.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute prescribes a summary mode of recovery but does not expressly or by necessary implication make it exclusive, the State may recover the tax arrears by any remedy available under the general law, including a civil suit.

---