Saving clause for income-tax assessment proceedings preserves revision powers and validates a removal-of-difficulties order.

Section 297(2)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 was construed broadly to preserve the old law for pending assessment machinery under the repealed 1922 Act, including revisionary proceedings under section 33B. The Court treated revision as part of the assessment process because it could lead to enhancement, modification, cancellation, or fresh assessment, so the Commissioner's initiation of revision for a pre-commencement return was valid. Clause (4) of the Income-tax (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 1962 was also upheld because it was consistent with the saving scheme in section 297 and merely clarified that appeal, reference, and revision under the repealed Act could continue.

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Issues: (i) Whether section 297(2)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 preserved the Commissioner's power to initiate revision under section 33B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 in respect of assessments completed before the new Act came into force; and (ii) whether clause (4) of the Income-tax (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 1962 was ultra vires section 298 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Issue (i): Whether section 297(2)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 preserved the Commissioner's power to initiate revision under section 33B of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 in respect of assessments completed before the new Act came into force.

Analysis: The expression "proceedings for the assessment" in section 297(2)(a) was held to be wide enough to include the entire machinery of assessment under Chapter IV of the repealed Act, including revisionary proceedings under section 33B. The Court treated revision under section 33B as part of the assessment process because it could lead to enhancement, modification, cancellation, or fresh assessment. The saving provision in section 297(2)(a) was therefore construed as preserving the old law for such proceedings where the return had been filed before commencement of the 1961 Act.

Conclusion: The Commissioner's initiation of proceedings under section 33B was valid and not without jurisdiction.

Issue (ii): Whether clause (4) of the Income-tax (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 1962 was ultra vires section 298 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 298 conferred a wide power on the Central Government to remove difficulties by general or special order, subject only to consistency with the Act. Clause (4) of the Order was held to be consistent with section 297 because it merely made express what was implicit in section 297(2)(a), namely that proceedings by way of appeal, reference, or revision under the repealed Act could continue as if the repealing Act had not been passed. The Order was therefore treated as a valid exercise of the enabling power.

Conclusion: Clause (4) of the Income-tax (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 1962 was valid and not ultra vires.

Final Conclusion: The repeal of the 1922 Act did not deprive the Revenue authorities of jurisdiction to proceed under section 33B in respect of pre-commencement assessment matters, and the challenge to the removal-of-difficulties order failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a saving clause uses comprehensive language such as "proceedings for the assessment," it may include revisionary proceedings integral to the assessment machinery, and a removal-of-difficulties order is valid if it merely clarifies and gives effect to that saved statutory scheme without inconsistency.

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