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TMI Blog1989 (7) TMI 93X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... error in one of the sentences of the order. The relevant sentence reads as follows (at p. 421) : "We are in agreement with the reasoning and conclusion reached by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in [1973] 90 ITR 400 (S. Devaraj v. CWT)." The Company Law Institute of India Private Ltd., Madras, informed their reporter at Gauhati for onward transmission to this court of their letter to the reporter. That letter sets out the error and reads as follows : "In the copy of the judgment received from you in CED v. Murarilal Sovasaria, Estate Duty Reference No. 1 of 1976 decided on August 11, 1988, which has been published on page 417 of volume 175, Income Tax Reports, in the penultimate paragraph of judgment (Xerox copy of the relevant page is enclosed for your ready reference), on the question of includibility of the share of the value of goodwill in the principal value of the estate of the deceased, there appears to be some discrepancy. The above discrepancy lies in the fact that the decision follows the conclusion reached by the Madras High Court in the case of S. Devaraj v. CWT [1973] 90 ITR 400. But a reference to the Madras High Court decision will show that the said question has ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gh Court. There were cases of Gauhati, Madras, Bombay, Gujarat and Calcutta High Courts. The reference to these cases all are found considered in the Supreme Court decision and when we say that that decision binds this court under article 141 of the Constitution, we will be mentioning what is obvious under the Constitution. But we were not aware of the decision. Before this court, in the original debate, two cases were cited. One was of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (not Full Bench) and another of the Madras High Court. The two courts had taken opposite views. We followed the decision of the former High Court and answered the question in favour of the accountable person. By an inadvertent error, the parties in the Madras case were typed instead of parties in the Punjab and Haryana case. We invited a debate, whether this court is possessed of power to correct the decision under article 141 and can follow the Supreme Court after opinion was signed and delivered as it happened in the case. This is the list in the supplemental proceedings. The correction of a clerical error does not cause any difficulty. In India, such errors are called clerical errors or inadvertent errors. Such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as passed by his predecessor-in-office). On appeal, the Supreme Court of Ceylon interpreted it in the opposite way and allowed the appeal. The contention before the Supreme Court of Ceylon was that the judge inadvertently did not decide the question. The Privy Council held that the, dispute in the case was not whether the judgment held one thing and the decree recited another. The decree, it was shown, was in conformity with the judgment. The judge who interpreted the predecessor's judgment was not right in the conclusion that the District Judge decided a question. The Privy Council held that the District Judge had good reasons for not deciding the question as it would have been inappropriate to have decided it. It was not a case where the issue, inadvertently, was not decided. In such controversy, inherent powers of courts have no play whatever, We have referred to the argument advanced to show that at times omission does not warrant alteration of the judgment. We think the Privy Council case is good illustration that the inherent power of courts does not provide remedy in all cases and repeat that the slip rule covered only a narrow area and parties should have recourse to the ge ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... el for the Revenue also relied on Antulay v. R. S. Nayak [1988] 2 SCC 602, wherein it is held that a superior court can correct its own error brought to its notice either by way of petition or ex debito justitiae : Rubinstein's jurisdiction and Illegality and Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th edn., Vol. 26, page 297, para 578 and page 300, the relevant notes 8, 11 and 15 Dias on jurisprudence, 5th edn., pages 128 and 130 Young v. Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. [1944] 2 All ER 293, 300 (paras 40 and 42). The case of Under article 143 of the Constitution of India, In re, AIR 1965 SC 745, was also cited in support of his submission that superior courts of record are entitled to determine for themselves questions about their own jurisdiction. They can correct their own mistakes and once the court comes to the conclusion that it is within their jurisdiction, the range of the jurisdiction also should cover to correct mistakes. Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol. 9, P. 349, was relied on to show that no matter is deemed to be beyond the jurisdiction of a superior court unless it is expressly shown to be so. In this case, we make it clear that inherent powers cannot be invoked for amending the ord ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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