TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1961 (5) TMI 5
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....nt had in two instalments repaid Rs. 5,500 out of the amount advanced and the balance of Rs. 24,500 with interest remained due and payable by the appellant. The appellant pleaded by his written statement that a loan of Rs. 30,000 was advanced by the respondent to him and his wife, Chapalabala, and a promissory note was in consideration thereof executed by the borrowers in favour of the respondent and, as collateral security for the loan, title deeds of certain immovable properties belonging to the said Chapalabala were deposited with the respondent and that thereafter between September 7, 1949, and April 13, 1953, the appellant had repaid an aggregate amount of Rs. 37,000 and the respondent having relinquished a sum of Rs. 235-7-0 on accoun....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....duction relate only to the evidence or deposition etc. made by an assessee himself and not to depositions or evidence of other witnesses. In any event, the disclosure and production etc. prohibited by section 54 of the Income-tax Act being in the interest of the assessee only, the assessee himself can waive this special protection and privilege " and that the appellant waived his right to the protection and privilege under section 54 of the Income-tax Act. It was the case of the appellant that in certain proceedings relating to assessment of income-tax of the appellant for the year 1949-50, the respondent had on February 22, 1950, made a statement before the Income-tax Officer, and to support his defence in the suit he desired that the st....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... fine. These provisions however do not apply to certain documents specified in clauses (a) to (p) of sub-section (3). It is manifest that disclosure of information given to public servants in the course of income-tax proceedings has by a comprehensive provision been prohibited. The income-tax authorities are directed by the provision to treat the information disclosed, evidence given, and documents produced as confidential : the courts are prohibited from requiring any public servant to produce the documents or the records and even to give evidence in respect thereof, and the public servants disclosing the particulars of the evidence, documents or record are penalised. The statement alleged to be made by the respondent in the assessment p....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... a direction to officials of the Income-tax Department, and in our opinion it is open to an assessee to waive that right and to give evidence, if he desires, of particulars contained in such a record, as was held in Rama Rao v. Venkataramayya. There is nothing in section 54 which prohibits the giving of such evidence ; the section merely directs officials of the Income-tax Department to treat such documents as confidential and prohibits the court from requiring public servants to produce such documents or to give evidence about such documents. " But the question whether a certified copy of the statement made by the respondent before the Income-tax Officer is admissible does not fall to be determined in this appeal. The Subordinate Judge e....