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TMI Blog1961 (5) TMI 5X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... NT The judgment of the court was delivered by SHAH J.---Gurupada Ghosh, respondent to this appeal, filed Suit No. 41 of 1953 in the Sixth Court of the Subordinate Judge at Alipore, District 24 Parganas, West Bengal, for a money decree against the appellant-Charu Chandra Kundu-for Rs. 32,132-12-3 claiming that he had advanced to the appellant on May 11, 1949, " byway of temporary accommodation loan " Rs. 30,000 by a cheque drawn upon the Comilla Union Bank, Calcutta, and that the appellant had in two instalments repaid Rs. 5,500 out of the amount advanced and the balance of Rs. 24,500 with interest remained due and payable by the appellant. The appellant pleaded by his written statement that a loan of Rs. 30,000 was advanced by the res ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rt thereof. The appellant then applied that the objection of the Commissioner of Income-tax be overruled and that the Income-tax Officer or any other competent officer be directed to produce the statement made by the respondent and recorded on February 22, 1950, in the proceedings for assessment of the income of the appellant. In that petition by paragraph 10, the appellant submitted that " on a true construction of section 54 of the Indian Income-tax Act, the exemption from disclosure and production relate only to the evidence or deposition etc. made by an assessee himself and not to depositions or evidence of other witnesses. In any event, the disclosure and production etc. prohibited by section 54 of the Income-tax Act being in the inter ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct, 1872, no court shall save as provided in the Act, be entitled to require any public servant to produce before it any such return, accounts, documents or record or any part of any such record or to give evidence before it in respect thereof. By sub-section (2), a public servant disclosing any particulars contained in any such document, return, accounts, documents, evidence, affidavit, deposition or record, is liable to be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months and also with fine. These provisions however do not apply to certain documents specified in clauses (a) to (p) of sub-section (3). It is manifest that disclosure of information given to public servants in the course of income-tax proceedings has by a comprehen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e is entitled to waive the privilege which confers protection upon him by section 54. In that case, however, the only question which fell to be determined was whether certified copies of statements recorded or orders passed by the income-tax authorities were admissible in evidence under section 65 of the Evidence Act to prove the contents of those documents. The court in that case observed : " The direction that such document (documents described in section 54) shall be treated as confidential is a direction to officials of the Income-tax Department, and in our opinion it is open to an assessee to waive that right and to give evidence, if he desires, of particulars contained in such a record, as was held in Rama Rao v. Venkataramayya. Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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