Auction sale confirmation under tax recovery rules is mandatory when no valid application to set aside the sale is made.

Under the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, the Tax Recovery Officer must confirm an auction sale when no application is made under Rules 60 or 61 to set it aside. Rules 60 and 61 are the only routes by which specified persons may seek to avoid the sale on specified grounds, and Rule 63(1) makes confirmation mandatory once no such application is pending, after which the sale becomes absolute. The text treats this scheme as in pari materia with Order 21 Rule 92 CPC and states that the mere power to confirm does not include a discretion to refuse confirmation in the absence of a valid set-aside application.

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Issues: Whether the Tax Recovery Officer could refuse to confirm and set aside an auction sale under the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961 in the absence of any application under the prescribed rules to set aside the sale.

Analysis: Rule 56 provides that the sale is subject to confirmation by the Tax Recovery Officer. Rules 60 and 61 create the only situations in which an application may be made to set aside the sale by specified persons on specified grounds. Rule 63(1) requires the Tax Recovery Officer to confirm the sale where no such application is made, and the sale then becomes absolute. The provision is treated as being in pari materia with Order 21, Rule 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, under which confirmation follows as a matter of duty when no application to set aside the sale is pending. The mere existence of power to confirm does not include a discretion to decline confirmation in the absence of an application to set aside the sale.

Conclusion: The Tax Recovery Officer had no jurisdiction to set aside the sale without an application under Rules 60 or 61, and was bound to confirm the sale when no such application existed. The sale could not be refused confirmation on the ground stated.

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