Income-tax record disclosure after repeal of confidentiality bar permits summons for post-1 April 1964 assessments.

The repeal of the earlier blanket confidentiality restriction on income-tax records removed the general bar on disclosure after 1 April 1964. Once section 137 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ceased to operate, section 138 governed disclosure and allowed information to be furnished to specified authorities, released on public-interest application, or restricted only by limited government notification. On that basis, income-tax assessment records and related documents could be summoned for assessments completed after 1 April 1964, while assessments completed before that date continued to remain protected under the earlier prohibitory regime.

---

---

Issues: Whether income-tax assessment records and related documents could be summoned after the repeal of the earlier statutory prohibition, and whether assessments completed before 1 April 1964 remained protected.

Analysis: The earlier blanket prohibition on disclosure under section 54 of the Income-tax Act, 1922, and section 137 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, no longer continued after the repeal of section 137 with effect from 1 April 1964. After that repeal, section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 governed disclosure, permitting information to be furnished to specified authorities, allowing disclosure on application in public interest, and enabling the Central Government to impose limited prohibitions by notification. On that basis, there was no general embargo against summoning income-tax records for assessments completed after 1 April 1964, though assessments completed before that date continued to remain protected to the extent they fell within the earlier prohibitory regime.

Conclusion: Summoning of documents was permitted for records relating to assessments completed after 1 April 1964, but not for records relating to assessments completed before that date.

---