MUNIYAMMAL Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER THIRD ADDL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of prohibition or other appropriate writ, prohibiting the first respondent from granting to the second respondent certified copies of income-tax assessment orders or other records relating to the income-tax assessment of one G. V. Rangaswami Naidu.

(2.) G. V. Rangaswami Naidu was an income-tax assessee who was running a bus service in Dowlatabad, Krishnagiri, Salem Dt. He died intestate on 21-10-1956, leaving behind him his heirs, the first petitioner, his widow, a minor daughter, and the 2nd respondent, his mother. The widow entered into possession of the estate. She put herself forward as the proprietrix of the bus service, and she submitted returns to the income-tax authorities for the assessment years 1956-57 and 1957-58. She was assessed to tax on the basis of the returns; the taxes have also been paid.

(3.) THE assessee having himself made the return and produced the document, should be held entitled to inspect and/or take copies of the same. In paragraph 85 of the notes and instructions compiled by the Income-tax department for the guidance of its officers, it is stated that the following persons shall, in practice, be allowed to inspect or to receive copies: (1) in any case the person who actually made the return; (2) any partner (known to be such) in a firm registered or unregistered to whose income the return relates, and (3) the manger of a Hindu undivided family to whose income the return relates, or any other adult member of the family who has been treated as representing it. In 1940-8 ITR 450: (AIR 1940 Mad 768) it was held there was nothing in S. 54 to prohibit the practice referred to in the Income-tax Manual.