It will be in the recollection of the House that on the Committee Stage of the Finance Bill I moved a recommendation for the purpose of having appeals, by way of case stated, to the court from assessments to income tax heard in camera. The Minister was quite sympathetic, as was also the Income Tax Department, and the only question that remained was whether there was any legal objection to my recommendation. For the purpose of ascertaining whether there was or not, the Minister asked that the matter should be allowed to remain over until Report. I am now happy to say that the legal authorities have no objection either. The Income Tax Department has very kindly gone into the matter of the form which my recommendation should take, and the recommendation I propose is slightly more comprehensive than the one that I moved on the Committee Stage. It reads as follows:—
Section 5. Before sub-section (9) to insert a new sub-section as follows:—
(9) Every re-hearing of an appeal by the Circuit Court under Section 196 of the Income Tax Act, 1918, shall be held in camera, and every hearing by the High Court or the Supreme Court of a case stated under Section 149 of the said Act or under that section as extended by Section 10 of the Finance Act, 1924 (No. 27 of 1924), shall, if the person whose chargeability to tax is the subject of the case so desires, be held in camera.
That is more comprehensive than the recommendation that I asked the House to pass when the Bill was in Committee. It covers every possible case of appeal which will be heard, whether in the Circuit, the High or the Supreme Court. I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my great appreciation of the assistance which I received from the Income Tax Department in this matter. They not only approved of my recommendation but they took the trouble of going into it and of seeing that it was in a form which would include every possible case.
