9911796707
TMI Blog1970 (11) TMI 34X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is filed under clause 15 of the Letters Patent, by the 11th defendant against the judgment of our learned brother Venkatesam J. in A.S. No. 194 of 1962. The suit O.S. No. 60 of 1961 was filed in the court of the Subordinate judge, Visakhapatnam, by the respondents for recovery of money due under a simple mortgage bond dated June 23, 952. The mortgagors fell into arrears of income-tax and hence item No. 1 of the plaint schedule, an upstair house at Vizianagaram, was sold in public auction at a revenue sale held in pursuance of a letter of request issued by the income-tax authorities under the provisions of the Madras Revenue Recovery Act, 1864 (11 of 1864). The suit was resisted mainly by the appellant herein contending that as there was a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... authority which is binding on us that provisions like section 46(2) provide merely the machinery or the procedure for recovering the arrears due to the Government under various heads and that in all such cases, the provisions of section 42 of the Madras Revenue Recovery Act are not attracted. It is only when any public charge due to the Government is declared by an enactment to be treate as land revenue itself that the provisions of section 42 of the Madras Revenue Recovery Act are attracted. In Kadir Mokideen Marakkayar v. Muthukrishna Ayyar, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court consisting of Benson and Bashyam Ayyangar JJ. held, considering a similar provision of the Income-tax Act of 1864, as follows: "We are clearly of opinion th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d to land revenue by any provision of law therein. On the other hand, it was pointed out that section 3 of the Land Encroachment Act specifically provided that the penal assessment due under the Act shall be deemed to be land revenue. Hence it was held in the said case that as the arrears due under a different enactment are deemed by a fiction of law to be equivalent to land revenue dues, a sale under the Revenue Recovery Act is a sale for recovery of land revenue and that, under those circumstances section 42 is attracted. But the said decision is not applicable to the present case, for there is no provision in the Indian Income-tax Act equating the arrears of income-tax to arrears of land revenue. The provisions of the Land Revenue Act ar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tax Officer and the mortgage will not be void for all purposes, so that the appellant who is a purchaser of the property can also ignore the mortgage as a void transaction. There is, therefore, no purpose in giving any further opportunity to the appellant to prove the said fact. Another contention raised by the learned counsel for the appellant is that an income-tax debt, being a Crown debt, he is entitled to priority over all other debts and that he being a purchaser in a sale for the realisation of a Crown debt he is entitled to priority over all other debts due from an assessee. We are unable to accept this contention as it is not only devoid of logic but of any authority. For the above reasons, we dismiss this appeal with costs. A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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