- (1.) THIS petition raises the question whether the learned Senior Sub-Judge of Gurgaon was justified in requiring an Income-tax Officer to state whether a certain person was or was not assessed to income-tax.
(2.) THE facts of the case are fairly simple. Certain relations of one Ram Autar who appears to have died as the result of an accident brought a suit against the Union of India under the provisions of the Fatal Accidents Act. The union of India requested the Court to summon the income-tax Officer of the appropriate circle with the object of showing that the deceased was not assessed to income-tax and was not a man of means. Mr. V. S. Gupta, Income-tax Officer, rohtak, appeared in Court in response to the summons issued to him in regard to matters which had come to his knowledge in his capacity as an Income-tax Officer. The Court directed him to consult his records and to state whether the deceased was assessed to income-tax in a particular year. The witness is dissatisfied with the order and has come to this court in revision.
(3.) SUB-SECTION (1) of Section 54, Income-tax Act, is in the following terms:-- "54 (1 ). All particulars, contained in any statement made, return furnished or accounts or documents produced under the provisions of this Act, or in any evidence given, or affidavit or deposition made, in the course of any proceedings under this Act other than proceedings under this Chapter, or in any record of any assessment proceeding, or any proceeding relating to the recovery of a demand, prepared for the purposes of this Act, shall be treated as confidential, and notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, no Court shall, save as provided in this Act, be entitled to require any public servant to produce before it any such return, accounts, documents or record or any part of any such record, or to give evidence before it in respect thereof. ";