Section 21 in The Punjab Forward Contracts Tax Act, 1951
21. Returns, etc, to be confidential.
(1)All particulars contained in any statement made, return furnished or accounts or documents produced in accordance with this Act, or in any record of evidence given in the course of any proceedings under this Act, other than proceedings before a Criminal Court, shall, save as provided in sub-section (3), be treated as confidential; and notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, (Act I of 1872) no court shall, save as aforesaid, be entitled to require any officer, of the Government to produce before it any such statement, return, accounts, document or record or any part thereof, or to give evidence before it in respect thereof.(2)Save as provided in sub-section (3), if any officer of the Government discloses any of the particulars referred to in sub-section (1), he shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months, and shall also be liable to fine.(3)Nothing in this section shall apply to the disclosure of any of the particulars referred to in sub-section (1) for the purposes of a prosecution under the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) in respect of any such statement, return, accounts, documents or evidence, or for the purposes of a prosecution under this Act or for the departmental use of officials of the Income-tax Department of the Government of India.
