D.—Disclosure of information

Disclosure of information prohibited

137. (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 Chapter XXII, or in any record of any assessment proceeding, or any proceeding relating to recovery of a demand, prepared for the purposes of this Act, shall be treated as confidential, and notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872), no court shall, save as provided in this 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.

(2) No public servant shall disclose any particulars contained in any such statement, return, accounts, documents, evidence, affidavit, deposition or record.

(3) Nothing in this section shall apply to the disclosure—

(i) of any such particulars for the purposes of a prosecution for any offence under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) in respect of any such statement, return, accounts, documents, evidence, affidavit or deposition, or for the purposes of a prosecution for any offence under this Act; or

(ii) of any such particulars to any person acting in the execution of this Act, where it is necessary or desirable to disclose the same to him for the purposes of this Act; or

(iii) of any such particulars, where the disclosure is occasioned by the lawful employment under this Act of any process for the service of any notice or the recovery of any demand; or

(iv) of any such particulars to a civil court in any suit or proceeding to which the Government or any Income-tax authority is a party, which relates to any matter arising out of any proceeding under this Act or under any other law for the time being in force authorising any Income-tax authority to exercise any powers thereunder; or

(v) of any such particulars to the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India for the purpose of enabling him to discharge his functions under the Constitution; or

(vi) of any such particulars to any officer appointed by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India or the Board to audit income-tax receipts or refunds; or

(vii) of any such particulars, relevant to any inquiry into the conduct of an official of the Income-tax Department, to any person appointed Commissioner under the Public Servants (Inquiries) Act, 1850 (37 of 1850), or to an officer otherwise appointed to hold such inquiry, or to a Public Service Commission established under the Constitution, when exercising its functions in relation to any matter arising out of any such inquiry, or to a court in connection with the prosecution arising out of any such inquiry; or

(viii) with the previous permission of the Central Government, of any such particulars as may be required by any Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Central Government under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 (60 of 1952), or by any authority to which the provisions of that Act have been made applicable by the Central Government, for the purpose of any inquiry by such Commission or authority; or

(ix) of any such particulars relevant to any inquiry into a charge of misconduct in connection with income-tax proceedings against a legal practitioner or chartered accountant, to the authority empowered to take disciplinary action against members of the profession to which he belongs; or

(x) of any such particulars by any public servant, where the disclosure is occasioned by the lawful exercise by him of his powers under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 (2 of 1899), to impound an insufficiently stamped document; or

(xi) of such facts, to an authorised officer of the Government of any country outside India for the granting of relief in respect of or avoidance of double taxation as may be necessary for the purpose of enabling such relief or a refund under section 90 to be given or such avoidance under that section to be made effective; or

(xii) of such facts, to an officer of a State Government authorised in this behalf as may be necessary for the purpose of enabling that Government to levy or realise any tax imposed by it; or

(xiii) of such facts, to an officer of the Central Government authorised in this behalf as may be necessary for the purpose of enabling that Government to levy or realise any tax imposed by it; or

(xiv) of such facts, to any authority exercising powers under the Sea Customs Act, 1878 (8 of 1878), or any Central Act imposing a duty of excise as may be necessary for enabling it duly to exercise such powers; or

(xv) of such facts, to any person charged by law with the duty of inquiring into the qualifications of electors as may be necessary to establish whether a person is or is not entitled to be entered on an electoral roll; or

(xvi) of so much of such particulars, to the appropriate authority, as may be necessary to establish whether a person has or has not been assessed to income-tax in any particular year or years, whereunder the provisions of any law for the time being in force such fact is required to be established; or

(xvii) of such particulars to the Reserve Bank of India as are required by that Bank to enable it to compile financial statistics of international investment and balance of payments; or

(xviii) of such information as may be required by any officer or department of the Central Government or of a State Government for the purpose of investigation into the conduct and affairs of any public servant or to a court in connection with any prosecution of the public servant arising out of any such investigation; or

(xix) of any such particulars to the Custodian of Evacuee Property appointed under the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 (31 of 1950), for the purpose of enabling him to discharge the duties imposed upon him by or under the said Act; or

(xx) of any such particulars as may be required by any order made under sub-section (2) of section 19 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (7 of 1947), or for the purposes of any proceeding or of a prosecution for an offence under section 23 of that Act; or

(xxi) of so much of such particulars to any person as is evidence of the fact that any property does not belong to the assessee but belongs to such person:

Provided that the assessee had, prior to such disclosure, been examined by the Income-tax Officer in respect of his right to such property.

(4) Nothing in this section shall apply to the production by a public servant before a court of any document, declaration or affidavit filed, or the record of any statement or deposition made in a proceeding under section 171 or sections 184 to 186 or to the giving of evidence by a public servant in respect thereof.

(5) Nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting the voluntary disclosure of any particulars referred to in sub-section (1) by the person by whom the statement was made, the return furnished, the accounts or documents produced, the evidence given or the affidavit or deposition made, as the case may be.

Explanation. - In sub-sections (1), (2) and (4), "public servant" means any public servant employed in the execution of this Act.

 

 

[As amended by the Finance Act, 1962]