1. This is an application by the Income Tax Officer, Company Circle, Bangalore, for an order admitting the claim of Rs. 1,44,678.36 nP. against the company in winding up and for a direction to pay the same as a preferential claim.

2. The amount claimed is the total tax liability for two assessment years 1954-55 and 1955-56. The assessment order in respect of the former was passed on March 10, 1959, and that in respect of the latter on March 27, 1962. Action was also taken for recovery under section 46(2) of the Income Tax Act of 1922 in October, 1959, and a certificate for recovery through the Deputy Commissioner was issued on December 19, 1960, followed later by a letter dated April 9, 1963, to recover the entire amount claimed in this application.

3. The company was ordered to be wound up by this court on July 6, 1964.

4. So far as the amount of the claim itself is concerned, there can be no doubt about its accuracy because it is covered by orders of assessment. There appears to have been an appeal in regard to the earlier of the assessment orders, and the amount claimed is the amount as settled by the appellate order.

5. The only question, therefore, is whether the appli