Commissioner of Income-tax Vs. Sercon Pvt. Ltd. - Court Judgment

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head note: income tax appeal (supreme court)--general principle--statement of case and order of tribunal not filed with the appeal. ratio : in all income-tax and allied tax matters, it is essential for the appellant or the petitioner to file the order rendered by the appellate tribunal in the appeal and also the statement of the case in cases where such a statement of the case is drawn up, therefore, time granted to the revenue to produce the relevant document within four weeks. held : in order to decide the matter fairly and satisfactorily the appellate order passed by the tribunal is a necessary document. so also in all the decisions rendered by the high court on a reference under section 256(1) or under section 256(2) of the act, the statement of the case which forms the sheet-anchor of the proceedings is a necessary document. both these proceedings do not form part of the paper book. this is not an isolated case in which this has happened in this court. in all income-tax and allied tax matters it is essential for the appellant or the petitioner, as the case may be, to file the order rendered by the appellate tribunal in the appeal and also the statement of the case in cases where such a statement of the case is drawn up. if the decision is rendered without looking into such documents, it will be unsatisfactory. it is high time that this factor is taken note of by the parties concerned and also by the registry. court directed the registry to insist that in all tax matters, coming on a reference, the order passed by the tribunal in the appeal and also the statement of the case should be produced by the appellant or the petitioner. in case the appellant or the petitioner has not produced it and if the respondent has with him such records, the registry may in appropriate cases direct him to produce the same. in any view of the matter, court is not inclined to dismiss the appeal on this technical ground. court grants time to the revenue to produce the relevant documents within four week. application : also to current assessment years. income tax act 1961 s.261 t. c. sharma and b. k. prasad, advocates, for the appellant. s. ganesh and ms. a. k. verma, advocates, for jbd and co., for the respondent. - interpretation of statute - international conventions: [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] held, in interpreting the domestic/municipal laws, court has extensively made use of international law for various purposes -explained. -- interpretation: held, interpretation of a statute cannot remain static. different canons and principle are to be applied having regard to the purport and object of the act. if the ground realities changed, the interpretation should also change. ground realities would not only depend upon the new situations and changes in the societal conditions, but also the fact that the government have become a signatory to international conventions. -- international conventions: held, in interpreting the domestic/municipal laws, court has extensively made use of international law for various purposes -explained. copyright act, 1957 -- section 14; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwara singh panta, jj] licence -the underlying philosophy of the copyright act is that the owner of the copyright is free to enter into voluntary agreement or licenses on terms mutually acceptable to him and the licensee. the act confers on the copyright owner the exclusive right to do the various acts enumerated in section 14. an infringement of copyright occurs if one of those acts is done without the owner license. a licence passes no interest, but merely makes lawful that which would otherwise be unlawful. sections 16 &17; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] copy right f.m. broadcasting channel radio mirchi sound recording of songs held, an artistic, literary or musical work is the brain-child of an author, the fruit of his labour and, so, considered to be his property. it creates a monopoly in favour of the author. what requires protection is unlawful reproduction of the authors work by others. it is the long period which encourages the authors to create works of literature, music and art. copyright can be enforced even though they are not registered unlike trade mark and passing off rights sections 16 & 17; [s.b.sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] tenure of copyright -the term of a copyright in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works not only remains protected in the entire life time of the author but also until 60years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the author dies, the term of copyright in sound recording subsists only for 60 years, but, the same would not mean that the right of an owner of sound recording is in any way inferior to that of right of an owner of copyright on original literary work etc. section 31; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] compulsory licence -board requirement are - (a)the subject work must be an indian work whose term of copyright is subsisting; (b)the indian work must be one that has been published or performed in public; (c) the owner of the copyright in the work must have (i) refused to republish or allow republication of the work or have refused to allow the performance of the work and by reason of such refusal the work is withheld from the public; or (ii) refused to allow communication to the public by broadcast, of such work or in the case of a sound recording the work recorded in such sound recording, on terms which the complainant considers reasonable; and (d) the copyright board is satisfied that the grounds for refusal are not reasonable. section 31; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] compulsory licence -power of copy right board - unpublished work - extent, power and procedure explained. section 31; [s.b. sinha &lokeshwar singh panta, jj] meaning of public held, the word public must be read to mean public of all parts of india and not only a particular part thereof. if any other meaning is assigned, the terms on terms which the complaints considers reasonable would lose all significance. section 31; [s.b. sinha &lokeshwar singh panta, jj]compulsory license held, if a compulsory licence is granted only once covering every single part of the country, the same cannot be lead to a conclusion that no other person can approach the board section 31; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] compulsory licence held, section 31(1)(b) in fact does not create an entitlement in favour of an individual broadcaster. the right is to approach the board when it considers that the terms of offer for grant of license are unreasonable. the mechanism to be adopted by the board for determining the right of a complainant has been provided under the act section 31; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] royalty and compensation held, royalty and compensation are not synonymous. royalty means the remuneration paid to an author in respect of the exploitation of a work, usually referring to payment on a continuing basis (e.g. 10 per cent of the sale price) rather than a payment consisting of a lump sum in consideration of acquisition of rights. section 31; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] compulsory licence held, if it is to be held that once the compulsory licence is granted in respect of a sound recording, the board loses its jurisdiction for all time to come, it will lead to an absurdity. section 31(1)(b); [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh panta, jj] jurisdiction of copy right board held, copy right board has the jurisdiction to direct the award of a copyright in any indian work on a registered copyright society to issue compulsory licence to broadcast such as works, where such work is available to the public through radio broad cast section 55; [s.b. sinha & lokeshwar singh pata, jj] exclusive licence held, it means a license which confers on the licensee, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the owner of the copyright) any right comprised in the copyright in a work. an exclusive licensee has specific rights under the act such as the right to have recourse to civil remedies under section 55 of the act. this scheme shows that a copyright owner has complete freedom to enjoy the fruits of his labour by earning an agreed fee or royalty through the issuance of licenses. but, this right, to repeat, is not absolute. it is subject to right of others to obtain compulsory licence as also the terms on which such licence can be granted. the income-tax appellate tribunal referred the following question of law for the decision of the high court of gujarat (see : [1982]136itr881(guj) : [1982]136itr881(guj) ) :'whether the tribunal was justified in law in holding that the land in question bearing final plot no. 522-c sold by the assessee was not agricultural land and that the excess of rs. 10,65,243 was liable to be taxed as capital gains even when the plot in question at the time of its sale was entered in the government revenue records as agricultural land ?'it is evident that the appellate tribunal held that the land in question is not agricultural land. but the high court has taken a different view and has held that the tribunal erred in holding that the land sold by the assessee - the subject-matter of this proceeding - is not agricultural land.in order to decide the matter fairly and satisfactorily the appellate order passed by the tribunal is a necessary document. so also in all the decisions rendered by the high court on a reference under section 256(1) or under section 256(2) of the act, the statement of the case which forms the sheet-anchor of the proceedings is a necessary document. we find that both these proceedings do not form part of the paper book. this is not an isolated case in which this has happened in this court. we are of the view that in all income-tax and allied tax matters which come up before this court, it is essential for the appellant or the petitioner, as the case may be, to file the order rendered by the appellate tribunal in the appeal and also the statement of the case in cases where such a statement of the case is drawn up. if the decision is rendered by this court without looking into such documents, it will be unsatisfactory. it is high time that this factor is taken note of by the parties concerned and also by the registry. we direct the registry to insist that in all tax matters, coming to this court ultimately on a reference, the order passed by the tribunal in the appeal and also the statement of the case should be produced by the appellant or the petitioner. in case the appellant or the petitioner has not produced it and if the respondent has with him such records, the registry may in appropriate cases direct him to produce the same.counsel for the revenue prays for time to file the order of the appellate tribunal and also the statement of the case. the appeal was filed nearly 13 years ago and the revenue had sufficient time to file these documents. why the revenue has not so far filed these documents, which should be referred to at the time of hearing, is not clear. in any view of the matter, we are not inclined to dismiss the appeal on this technical ground. we grant time to the revenue to produce the relevant documents within four weeks. list the matter after four weeks.the registrar general will take note of the directions given hereinabove and direct the registry to see that the above orders are procured by the registry in all cases coming under reference jurisdiction in tax matters.