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TMI Blog1984 (6) TMI 3X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he issue of a certified copy of the return filed by the 3rd respondent quoting reference number M.55 (Exhibit P-1). The 1st respondent by exhibit P-2 order dated February 23, 1983, rejected the application. He relied on section 54(3) read with section 54(1) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act and said that the application for a certified copy of the return filed by the 3rd respondent by a stranger is not sustainable and so the petitioner is not entitled to the certified copy applied for by him. The petitioner filed another application seeking the very same relief by exhibit P-3 dated March 18, 1983. Exhibit P-4 is the affidavit filed in support of the application. By exhibit P-5 order dated March 21, 1983, the lst respondent rejected the app ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act is to the following effect: "54. Disclosure of information by public servant - (1) All particulars contained in any statement made, return furnished or accounts or documents produced under the provisions of this Act or in any evidence given or affidavit or deposition made in the course of any proceedings under this Act other than proceedings under this Chapter or in any record of an assessment proceeding or any proceeding relating to the recovery of a demand prepared for the purposes of this Act shall be treated as confidential and notwithstanding anything contained in the Travancore or Cochin Evidence Act, no court shall, save as provided in this Act, be entitled to require any public servant to produce before it any such return, ac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hatta [1977] KLT 583. At pages 585, my learned brother Mr. Justice G. Balagangadharan Nair held that: "As to the effect of the sub-section, it is in two parts-the first part enacts that the records and particulars specified in them shall be treated as confidential and the second part, save as provided in the Act, debars the court from requiring any public servant to produce the records or any part of them in court. Therefore, besides directing the records to be treated as confidential, the sub-section imposes a ban upon the public servant against producing them or any part of them in court." On a fair and reasonable reading of section 54(1) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, in the light of the decisions in Charu Chandra Kundu's case [ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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