In Brief
The appellant purchased a Delhi property at an Income Tax Department auction in 1964. The respondents, the property's original owners, challenged the sale through a writ petition seeking its annulment. The High Court dismissed the writ petition in 1990, relegating parties to a pending civil suit before the District Judge. That civil suit had already been dismissed in 1986, before the writ petition judgment was pronounced. The High Court later exercised review jurisdiction, identifying an error: Section 293 of the Income Tax Act bars civil suits against tax authorities, yet the judgment improperly relied on a non-existent suit as the remedy. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's review order, finding the error justified restoring the writ petition for merit-based hearing to prevent the respondents remaining remediless.
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