Judgment

D.P. Wadhwa, J.-Commissioner of Income Tax, Bhubaneshwar and Union of India, Ministry of Finance have filed this appeal against the judgment dated October 24, 1994 of the Orissa High Court which the High Court dismissed their revision and affirmed the order of the subordinate court rejecting the plea of the Revenue that a suit for partition filed by the first respondent was not maintainable in view of the bar of in Section 293 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short, the ‘Act’).

2. Respondent No. 1, as the plaintiff, filed a suit for partition against 7 defendants, defendants 6 and 7 being respectively Union of India through Finance Secretary and Commissioner of Income Tax, Oris­sa, now the appellant before us. Defendants 1 and 2 are step-brothers and defendants 3 to 5 are step-sisters of the plaintiff. Plaintiff said that she was the daughter of Bansidhar Agarwal from his first wife while defendants 1 to 5 were the children of Bansidhar Agarwal from his second wife. Defendant No. 1 is Babulal whose residential and business premises were subjected to search and seizure operation under Section 132 of the Act and various assets including certain gold ornaments, subject matter