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Judgment
Rajamannar, C.J.—This is an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of India against an order passed by this court dismissing
a petition filed under article 226 of the Constitution by the petitioner. In that petition she prayed for the issue of a writ of mandamus restraining the
Income Tax Officer, Second Additional City Circle, Madras, the Collector of Nilgiris District, and the Tahsildar of Coonoor, from proceeding to
attach, or to bring to sale the petitioners properties for the realisation of the alleged Income Tax arrears of her husband, Tharanisingh Gramani, and
in particular from proceedings with the sale of Benhutty Estate, in the Nilgiris district. The facts material for the petition may be briefly stated. For
the recovery of arrears of Income Tax due from the petitioners husband a certificate was issued by the Income Tax officer to the Collector of
Nilgiris u/s 46(2) of the Indian Income Tax Act. The Collector in pursuance of this certificate proceeded to attach the property described as
Benhutty Estate for the realisation of the said arrears. It is common ground that this estate was purchased in the name of the petitioner under a
deed of sale dated 1st September, 1947. Nevertheless the property was sought to be attached because according to the Income Tax Department
though the ostensible title stood in the name of the petitioner, she was only a benamidar and that the real owner was the defaulting assessee, her
husband. The petitioner alleged that there was no provision in the Madras Revenue Recovery Act, which enabled the Collector to attach and sell
any land other than the land of the defaulter and land which is registered in the name of someone other than the defaulter could not be deemed to
be the land of the defaulter. This court agreed with that contention of the petitioner but on behalf of the respondents it was contended that in
exercise of the additional powers conferred on the Collector under the proviso to section 46(2) of the Income Tax Act, namely, the powers of a
civil court for the purpose of the recovery of an amount due under a decree, the Collector was entitled to attach a property ostensibly standing in
the name of a person other than the defaulter on the ground that it really belonged to the defaulter. With this contention this court agreed. Learned
counsel for the respondents also intimated to the court that the attachment in this case would be treated as an attachment under the provisions of
the CPC and that the petitioner would be entitled to prefer claim if she chose to. In view of this this court dismissed the writ petition also observing
that the party who felt aggrieved by the decision of the Collector on such a claim made by the petitioner would have the right of a suit under Order
XXI, rule 63, of the Civil Procedure Code. The result of the dismissal of the writ petition by this court was to allow the attachment made by the
Collector to continue and to enable the parties, that is, both the Department and the petitioner to take such steps as they were entitled to in law.
This court never went into the question of title of the petitioner to the attached property. The application for leave to appeal is made under article
133(1) of the Constitution. The petitioner stated that the value of the subject-matter of the dispute in the writ petition and still in dispute on appeal
to the Supreme Court is over Rupees twenty thousand and that the matter involves a substantial question of law. The application was opposed by
Mr. Rama Rao Sahib, special counsel for the Income Tax Department. He raised three objection, namely, (1) that the order sought to be appealed
is not an order passed by this court in civil proceeding, (2) in any event it is not a final order, and (3) the requirement as to valuation of the subject-
matter involved is also not satisfied as it cannot be said that the value of the subject-matter of the dispute is not less than Rupees twenty thousand.
Nor can it be said that the order involves directly or indirectly some claim or question respecting property of the like amount or value. Mr. M. K.
Nambiar for the petitioner tried to meet all these objections. The question raised are not free from difficulty and after careful consideration we have
come to the conclusion that the petitioner is not entitled to leave to appeal to the Supreme Court as of right under article 133(1) of the Constitution.
The first objection that the order of the court was not passed in a civil proceeding was based on two grounds, namely, (1) that as the matter
related to Income Tax the proceeding was a revenue proceeding and (2) that an application under article 226 of the Constitution was not civil
proceeding. Taking the second ground first we are not prepared to subscribe the large proposition that no order passed by this court on a petition
filed under article 226 of the Constitution for a relief covered by that article would ever be an order in a civil proceeding of a High Court. Article
226 clearly say that directions, orders or writs sought under that article are for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by part III of the
Constitution or for any other purpose. There is no definition of ""civil proceeding"" in the Constitution. We fail to see why a proceeding under article
226 of the Constitution for the enforcement of a right to property, for instance, cannot be deemed to be a civil proceeding. We realise that every
application under article 226 of the Constitution cannot be deemed to be civil proceeding. To give an obvious example an application for a write of
habeas corpus or writ of prohibition to prevent prosecution of criminal proceeding may not be property described as civil proceedings, but if the
civil right of a party are affect by an order of the executive government or party feels aggrieved by the adjudication of a special administrative
tribunal relating to his right in a property or other civil rights we see no reason why an application by such an aggrieved party should not be deemed
to be civil proceeding. The only authority in support of this part of Mr. Rama Rao Sahibs contention is a decision of the Patna High Court in
Collector of Monghyr v. Pratap Singh. In that case a Full Bench of the Patna High Court held that the proceeding in the High Court for grant of a
writ under article 226 of the Constitution is not a ""civil proceeding"" within the meaning of article 133 of the Constitution. Ramaswami, C.J., who
delivered the judgment of the Full Bench sets out the reason for the conclusion thus :
The jurisdiction of the High Court under article 226 is an extra-ordinary jurisdiction vested in the High Court not for the purpose of declaring the
civil right of the parties but for the purpose of ensuring that the law of the land is implicitly obeyed and that the various tribunals and public
authorities are kept within the limits of their jurisdiction. In other words the jurisdiction of the High Court under article 226 is a supervisory
jurisdiction, a jurisdiction meant to supervise the work of the tribunals and public authorities and to see that they act within the limits of their
respective jurisdiction.
In a proceeding under article 226 of the High Court is not concerned with the determination of the civil rights of the parties; the only object of such
a proceeding under article 226 is to ensure that the law of the land is implicitly obeyed and that various authorities and tribunals act within the limits
of their respective jurisdiction.
And again at page 105 :
The expression used in article 133 is a civil proceedings of a High Court and the expression civil cause or matter which is manifestly of wider
import. On its general acceptation, the term proceeding means the form in which the action is bought or defended, the manner of intervention by
parties, the mode of deciding issues of opposing judgment and of executing (Bouviers Law Dictionary). It follows that the expression civil
proceeding of a High Court must be interpreted to mean the form of proceeding of the High Court in the exercise of its civil jurisdiction.
With great respect to the learned Chief Justice we are unable to agree with his reasoning. It may be true that under article 226 of the
Constitution this court never declares the civil rights of the parties but this court does in proper case enforce such rights in case of infringement of
civil right of parties, for example, the right to property. It is also clear that various tribunals and public authorities are entrusted with the duty of
adjudicating between rival claims to property. A petition under article 226 of the Constitution to quash a decision of one such tribunal would
certainly pertain to the civil right of the parties. Nor do we agree that an application for the issue of a writ under article 226 of the Constitution can
never be a proceeding of the High Court in exercise of its civil jurisdiction. We have the high authority of the Privy Council in Zamindar of
Parlakimedi v. Ryots of Garbhandu that the issue of a prerogative writ would be part of the original jurisdiction of a High Court and if it relates to
civil rights it would be in the exercise of its original civil jurisdiction. Vide also Moulvi Hamid Hassan Nomani v. Banwarilal Ray. We cannot also
refrain from referring to the facts that in several matter arising out of the petitions filed under article 226 of the Constitution this court has given
leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and so far as we are aware no objection was taken either by the court or by the eminent counsel who
appeared in any of the cases that leave should not have been granted as the order appealed against was not passed in a civil proceedings. We,
therefore, reject this part of the contention of Mr. Rama Rao Sahib.
The next part of this contention was that proceeding in this case was in the nature of a revenue proceeding and such a proceeding will not fall
within the class of a civil proceedings mentioned in article 133(1) of the Constitution. He referred us to the decision of the Patna High Court in
Allen Berry and Co. Ltd. v. Income Tax Officer. In that case the petitioner were assessed to tax u/s 23 of the Indian Income Tax Act. Against this
assessment order the petitioners filed applications for the issue of writs under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution and these application were
summarily dismissed by the High Court and applications were filed for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court under article 133 of the Constitution
against such orders. It was held by a Division Bench of the Patna High Court that the orders complained of were not orders passed in a civil
proceeding within the meaning of that article and leave was refused. Besides this decision there are also other decisions as for instance the
decisions of the Nagpur High Court in Sri Ram Gulabndas v. Board of Revenue, M. P., in which it has been held that applications filed to quash
assessments to Income Tax or sales-tax would not be civil proceedings within the meaning of article 133 of the Constitution. These decision, in our
opinion, have no application to the present case. The following observations of S. K. Das, C.J., who delivered the judgment of the Bench in Allen
Berry and Co. Ltd. v. Income Tax Officer, set out the grounds on which leave was refused :
It seems clear to me that every writ application is not necessarily a civil proceeding; it may be a civil proceeding, or a criminal proceeding, or other
proceeding, according to the nature of the application and the question raised and decided in the proceeding. It is well settled that a suit would not
have been maintainable by the petitioner in respect of the two assessment orders; and if the petitioners had proceeded under the machinery of the
Indian Income Tax Act the proceeding would not have been anything but a revenue proceeding. The mere fact that the petitioners filed tow
applications for writs in the High Court against the assessment orders, does not, in my opinion, change the nature of the proceeding. I agree with
the view expressed by their Lordships of the Rajasthan High Court which states that the question whether proceeding under article 226 of the
Constitution is a civil proceeding or not depends upon nature of the proceeding. In the cases before us the nature of proceeding was that it called
into question certain assessment orders made by the Income Tax authorities. The proceeding was not a civil proceeding as there was no right of
suit, and I do not think it can be said to be a civil proceeding within the meaning of article 133 of the Constitution.
If the application filed by the petitioner before us under article 226 of the Constitution had been to quash the assessment order it may well be
said that it is not a civil proceeding on the above reasoning. But such is not the relief sought by the petitioner. There is no quarrel as such with the
orders of assessment passed on her husband. All that she complains of is that her own property is being attached and sold to realise the amount of
tax due by her husband. She is only asserting her right to the property standing n her name and seeking relief against any interference with her right.
We do not think that it is proper to describe her application as a revenue proceeding. She could not have obviously proceeded under the
machinery of the Indian Income Tax Act as the petitioners in the Patna case could have. Further a suit would have been maintainable by the
petitioner to restrain the Income Tax authorities from taking proceedings against her property to satisfy the arrears of tax due from her husband
whereas in the Patna case and other similar cases a suit would have not have been maintainable to challenge the validity of the assessment orders.
We, therefore, hold that the writ petition filed by the petitioner was not a revenue proceeding. In this view it is necessary to discuss the much larger
question whether revenue proceedings could also be deemed to be civil proceedings for the purpose of article 133(1) of the Constitution. We may
in passing refer to the view taken by this court in Krishnasami v. Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, that ""it cannot be affirmed
that every order passed in proceedings other than criminal is open to appeal under article 133 as made in a civil proceeding.
The next objection which certainly appears to us to be formidable is that the order sought to be appealed against is note final order. The number
of decisions dealing with the question as to when an order can be deemed to be final order is legion but it is not necessary to examine all of them.
Mr. Nambiars argument briefly was that the only proceeding in this court was the write petition filed by the petitioner and that was finally disposed
of by the order against which the appeal is proposed to be filed and so there is a final order. Simple and attractive though the argument appears,
logically it will lead to the result that an order dismissing an application for stay of execution of a decree or stay of trial of suit in a subordinate court
would also be final order because it may be said that an application for stay is a proceeding in the court and that has been finally disposed of by the
order dismissing it. The test which could be gathered on a study of the relevant authorities for determining the finality of an order is whether the
order has finally disposed of the rights of the parties. Vide the decisions in Kuppusami Rao v. The King, and Premchand v. State of Bihar. In
Hossen Kasam Dada v. State of Madhya Pradesh the facts were these : An appeal to the Commissioner of Sales Tax was not admitted on the
ground that the applicant had not deposited the tax assessed under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 22 of the Central Provinces and Berar
Sales Tax Act, 1947. The applicant thereupon made an application to the High Court under article 226 of the Constitution for a direction to the
Commissioner of Sales Tax to admit the appeal even though the particular condition was not complied with. The High Court rejected the
application. The applicant thereupon applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court under article 133 of the Constitution. It was held by a Full
Bench of the Nagpur High Court that the decision of the High Court could not be regarded as a judgment or a final order within the meaning of
article 133 of the Constitution. Their Lordships pointed out that a judgment or a final order to be appealable to the Supreme Court must affect the
merits of case between the parties by determining some right or liability. The High Court did no more than to point out to the applicant that the Act
must be complied with. In Thangavelu Chettiar and Co. v. Government of Madras, a Bench of this court held that an order of the High Court
relating to a provisional assessment was not a final order within the meaning of article 133(1) of the Constitution. It cannot be said that the order of
this court dismissing the writ petition filed by the petitioner had terminated the proceedings taken by the Collector to attach the petitioners property.
This court never determined the right of the petitioner to the property sought to be attached by the Collector for recovery of arrears of Income
Tax. The Collector on an objection by the petitioner might well hold that the property belongs to the petitioner herself and, therefore, cannot be
attached and sold to recover the arrears due from her husband, the assessee. We, therefore, hold that the order of this court sought to be appealed
against is not a final order within the meaning of article 133(1) Vide also West Jamuria Coal Co. v. Bholanatha.
Once it is held that an order is not a final order it follows that it is not also a judgment within the meaning of article 133. An order which is not
final cannot be deemed to be a judgment. See Mohammed Amin Bros Ltd. v. Dominion of India and Raghavacharyulu v. Venkata
Ramanujacharyulu. The objection of Mr. Rama Rao Sahib that the order passed by this court in the writ petition is neither a judgment nor a final
order within the meaning of article 133(1) of the Constitution must, therefore, prevail.
We are also decided on doubtful if the case satisfies the requirements of article 133(1)(A) as to valuation. We shall assume that the property
which has been attached is worth more than Rs. 20,000 but can it be said that the subject-matter of the dispute is the property sought to be
attached. This court did not go into the question of the petitioners title to the property. All that the court was to allow the attachment of the
property by the Collector to continue and it left open to the petitioner all the remedies which if desired she can avail here self of to prevent the
property from being sold. We think that the order does not even involve directly or indirectly some claim or question respecting the property. If this
court had decided that the property really belonged to the petitioners husband and that the petitioner was only a benamidar, then obviously the
subject-matter of the dispute would be property or in any event the order would involve a claim respecting property. This court did not hold so. It
only indicated the procedure which the Collector should follow in exercise of his powers u/s 46 of the Indian Income Tax Act. We are inclined to
hold that the case does not even satisfy the pecuniary requirement of article 133(1)(a) of the Constitution. In the result the application for leave to
the Supreme Court is dismissed. No costs.