Recall of unanswered income-tax reference refused where no statutory power existed and section 151 CPC did not apply.

A High Court cannot recall an order returning an income-tax reference unanswered unless the Act or court rules expressly confer that power, and section 151 CPC does not apply to the advisory jurisdiction under the Income-tax Act, 1922. The earlier order, made after the applicant failed to file paper books and did not appear, was treated as a judicial order with the effect of dismissal for non-prosecution, not as an administrative act. The application for recall was therefore not maintainable and was rejected as incompetent.

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Issues: Whether an application under section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure to recall an order returning an income-tax reference unanswered was maintainable.

Analysis: The reference arose under section 66(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, and the earlier order had been passed because the applicant failed to file the requisite paper books and did not appear when the matter was listed. The Court held that neither the Income-tax Act nor the rules of the Court conferred any power to recall an order returning a reference unanswered. Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure was held to be inapplicable to the advisory jurisdiction under the Act. The order was further treated as a judicial order having the incidents of an order dismissing the reference for non-prosecution, and therefore it could not be characterised as a purely administrative order so as to attract section 21 of the General Clauses Act.

Conclusion: The application was not maintainable and was rejected as incompetent.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express statutory or rule-based power, a High Court cannot recall an order returning an income-tax reference unanswered, and such an order is a judicial order, not an administrative one.

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