Proceedings in the High Court on writ petitions challenging the correctness of an order of a taxing authority are civil proceedings in respect of which leave to appeal to the Supreme Court can be granted under Article 133 of the Constitution.

A.N.Grover, J.

1. The question that has arisen in both these petitions (S. C. As. Nos. 92 of 1964 and 107 of 1964) under Art. 133(c) of the Constitution of India for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against the orders of a Bench of this Court is whether the proceedings in which the judgments were delivered by this Court are civil proceedings in respect of which alone leave can be granted under Art. 133. There are number of decisions of various High Court s namely,. Allen Berry & Court. Ltd. V/s. Income-tax Officer, (S) AIR 1956 Pat 175, Sriam Gulabdas V/s. Board of Revenue, AIR 1954 Nag. 1 (FB), Income-tax Officer V/s. Joti Prasad Agarwal, (1962) 44 I T R 574 : (AIR 1960 All 84) First Addl. Income-tax Officer V/s. R. Shanmugha Rajeswara Sethupathi. (1963) 48 I T R 647 : (AIR 1963 Mad 190), J. P. Sharma V/s. Phalton Sugar Works Ltd., ( 1963) 50 ITR 72: (AIR 1964 Bom 116) and State of Madras V/s. Madurai Mills Co. Ltd., ( 1964) 15 S T C 207 : (AIR 1964 Mad 494) in which the view has been expressed that an order of a High Court on a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution praying for a writ with regard to proceeding arising out of the income-tax Act and enactments relating to sales tax is not a judgment, decree or order " in a civil proceeding" within the meaning of Art. 133 of the Constitution and the High Court has no power to issue a certificate under that Article that the case is a fit one for appeal to the Supreme Court. There is hardly any other authoritative decision to the contrary but in L. Lachman Das Nayar V/s. Income-tax Officer, Amritsar, (1955) 28 I T R 392 (Punj) a Bench of this Court in a short order gave leave in a writ matter arising out of proceedings under the Income-tax Act under S. 109(b) and 109(c) of the Code of Civil Procedure. It may be mentioned that no such objection was raised before that Bench as has been taken before us and the mater does not appear to have been considered at all. In Sardar Kapur Singh V/s. Union of India, (S) A.I.R. 1957 Punj. 173 (FB) which related to a service matter, some observations were made to the effect that although the Patna Court had drawn a distinction between revenue proceeding arising out of taxation matter and civil proceeding, no such distinction had been raised in the Supreme Court judgment in A. Thangal Kunju Musaliar V/s. M. Venkatachalam Potti, (S) A.I.R. 1956 S. C. 246. The Supreme Court decision arose out of a petition which had been filed in the High Court under Article 226 challenging the validity of certain provisions of the Travancore Taxation on Income (Investigation Commission) Act and raising some other points and all that happened was that when the appeals came up before their Lordships under certificates granted by the High Court, they were entertained. Strictly speaking the question in that case was of an entirely different nature and did not arise out of orders or proceedings either under the Income-tax Act or the enactments relating to sales tax. It the view of the majority of the High Courts, namely Patna, Nagpur, Bombay and Madras is to be accepted, no leave can be granted in the present cases as the proceedings in which the judgments were given by this Court would be essentially revenue proceedings and not civil proceedings in respect of which alone leave can be granted under Article 133. The question raised is one of importance and should be settled authoritatively by this Court. We are, therefore, of the view that it should be decided by a larger Bench.

We refer the following question to the Full Bench is both the cases :-

- Whether the order of the High Court on the petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in the present case is a judgment, decree or order "in a civil proceeding" within the meaning of Article 133 of the Constitution and whether the High Court has the power to issue a certificate that the case is a fit one for appeal to the Supreme Court ?

The order of Hon ble the Chief Justice may be obtained for the con