NAZIR MAHAMMAD Vs. JAMILA BIBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) OPPOSITE parties Nos. 1 to 3 who are plaintiffs have instituted T.S. No. 300 of 1969 in the court of the learned Subordinate Judge of Cuttack. In essence it is a suit for partition. The business assets of the family are included in the hotchpot for partition and such business was being run in the names of M/s. Roshan Mahammad and M/s. Nazir Mahammad.

(2.) WHEN the trial commenced, an application was made by the plaintiffs for summoning the income-tax records relating to the asssessment years 1953-54 to 1968-69 from the Income-tax Officer, Ward C, who was the concerned assessing officer. No notice was given of this application to defendant No. 2, who is the petitioner in this court, but orders were passed calling upon the Income-tax Officer to produce the records. On July 9, 1970, the documents were produced by an inspector of the income-tax department. At that point the objection was raised by the defendants about the legality of the order calling for production of the documents and the power of the court to receive those documents. This objection was on the basis that there was a bar against production of these documents under the Income-tax Act, 1961. The objection was over-ruled by the learned trial judge and he held that the order of production was justified and he was competent to receive the documents from the income-tax department. The present revision application is directed against that order.