TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1981 (3) TMI 18
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.... the respondents, the claimant had disclosed the amount due from them as being Rs. 10,000 only in a statement filed by him with the I.T. authorities on 19th November, 1971. By an ex parte order dated 29th September, 1978, the Insolvency Registrar was ordered at the instance of the respondents to issue letters of request to, (i) the Commissioner of Income-tax, Bombay City-V, (ii) the Commissioner of Income-tax (Central) Bombay, and (iii) the 7th Income-tax Officer, A-Ward, Piramal Chambers, Parel, Bombay, to cause to produce an application for settlement under s. 271(4A) of the I.T. Act, 1961, filed by the claimant with the Commissioner of Income-tax (Central), Bombay, as well as the order made by the Commissioner of Income-tax, Bombay. Thes....
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....mpany within the meaning of section 34A of the Banking Companies Act, 1949 (X of 1949), or ...... Provided that nothing contained hereinbefore shall apply to the disclosure of such information (including the production of such document or record)-...... " We are not concerned in this appeal with the different clauses of the proviso in the notification and hence they have not been reproduced. The learned counsel for the appellant has contended that this is notification of general application in cases of all assessees and that there is a clear bar imposed by the said notification against the I.T. authorities for furnishing any information from the assessment records of the claimant. Now, it is well known that the provisions of s. ....
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....lating to such class of assessees or except to such authorities as may be specified in the order. " The notification which is relied upon by the learned counsel for the appellant is issued in the exercise of the power contained in the abovequoted provision. The question whether the notification relied upon is notification of general application in the case of all assessees or whether, as contended on behalf of the respondents, it applies only in the case of banking company has to be decided on the construction of the said notification. Now, the opening part of the notification refers to " the practices and usages customary among banking companies and to other relevant factors ". Prima facie on a reading of the opening part of the notific....
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..... These words will indicate that two kinds of proceedings are contemplated, one is the assessment proceeding and the other is the proceeding relating to the recovery of a demand. Reading the first and the second part together, to take an illustration, an information may be in any statement made either in the course of any assessment proceeding or it may be in any record of any assessment proceeding or it may be in any proceeding relating to the recovery of a demand. So far as the information given in any evidence is concerned, such evidence may have been given in the course of any assessment proceeding or such evidence may be in any record of any assessment proceeding or such evidence may be in any proceeding relating to the recovery of a d....
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....Act, or in any evidence given, affidavit or deposition made in the course of any assessment proceedings under the Act or the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (XI of 1922) " are independent of the remaining part of the clause and the contention was that in respect of banking companies, it is only the latter part of the clause which becomes relevant. As we have indicated above, such a reading will be wholly contrary to the natural grammatical reading of the notification. There is clear indication in the clause that the assessment proceedings or the proceedings relating to the recovery of a demand or the record of the assessment proceeding has to be in respect of an assessee which is a banking company. As already pointed out, if there was any doubt....