Law:

Section:

Section 131, read with section 135, of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Discovery, production of evidence, power regarding - Whether section 131 does not authorise anybody else except persons named therein to exercise powers conferred by section - Held, yes - Whether section 135 could, not be utilised by Assistant Director of Inspection to exercise any authority specifically conferred under section 131 - Held, yes Interpretation of Statutes: Generalia specialibus non derogant. FACTS By a notice in writing under section 131, the respondent, the Assistant Director of Inspection, required the petitioner personally to attend the office of said respondent as his attendance was required in connection with the proceedings under the Act in the case of 'A' either personally or through an authorised representative to give evidence and to produce certain books of account and other documents specified. On writ, the petitioner submitted that as the Director of Inspection was not one of the authorities mentioned in section 131, either before or after its amendment in 1965, the respondent had no jurisdiction to issue the impugned notice and the notice and the proceedings thereunder should be quashed. HELD Section 131 specifically empowers the four authorities mentioned therein to exercise the powers vested in a Court under the Civil Procedure Code. Section 135, inter alia, gives the Director of Inspection all the powers of the ITO to make any enquiry under the Act. Section 131 does not specifically deal with an enquiry under the Act; it authorises the taking of certain steps to facilitate such an enquiry. It the Director of Inspection assumes the power of an ITO under section 131 then he would have to obtain the approval of the Commissioner before impounding of seizing any books and documents. When section 135 speaks of the power of an ITO to make any inquiry, the inquiry is one as provided in section 142 for the purposes of making an assessment and/or proceedings in relation thereto, as, for example, proceeding for penalty. In the instant case there was no allegation that any assessment was pending before the respondent and, therefore, no question could arise of his exercising any…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492