Prior revenue attachment follows court sale proceeds and supports priority without fresh attachment under civil procedure.

Prior attachment by revenue authorities continued to operate after the attached property was sold in court auction, so the attachment followed the sale proceeds. On that basis, no fresh attachment of the proceeds under Order 21 Rule 52 CPC was required. The Income-tax Officer's application under section 151 CPC was held maintainable because the earlier revenue attachment had already secured the claim and the procedural objection was rejected. Authorities cited against maintainability were distinguished as turning on different procedural contexts and not on a subsisting prior attachment. The revenue was therefore entitled to assert priority over the sale proceeds.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Income-tax Officer could move the executing court under section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 for payment of arrears of income-tax out of the sale proceeds, and whether the prior attachment of the property by the revenue authorities continued to operate on the sale proceeds after the court sale.

Analysis: The house had already been attached by the revenue authorities in 1955, and that attachment was upheld in prior proceedings. The sale of the house during the subsistence of that attachment did not extinguish the attachment; the attachment continued to attach itself to the proceeds realised by the sale. In that situation, there was no necessity for a fresh attachment of the sale proceeds under Order 21, Rule 52 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The objection that the Income-tax Officer could not invoke section 151 was rejected because the application was made by the Income-tax Officer and not by the Collector, and the earlier attachment had already secured the revenue's claim. The authorities relied on by the revision applicant were distinguished on the ground that they concerned different procedural settings and did not involve a prior subsisting attachment.

Conclusion: The application under section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 was maintainable, and the revenue was entitled to claim priority against the sale proceeds.

---