INCOME-TAX OFFICER ROHTAK Vs. JANKI DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(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:--