Assessee has a Right to get the Certified Copy of Assessment Records

CBDT circular Dated 28.06.1965 No. 17 (XL-36), provides for inspection fees and fees for certified copies of assessment and other records.

This circular clears that the assessee or his A/R are entitled to inspect as well as obtain certified copies of assessment and other records records.

Section 35, Section 74 & Section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 arr relevant here.

Section 35 points out relevancy of entry in public record, made in performance of duty .

Any entry in any public or other official book, register or record, stating a fact in issue or relevant fact, and made by a public servant in the discharge of his official duty, or by any other person in performance of a duty specially enjoined by the law of the country in which such book, register or record is kept, is itself a relevant fact                                                                                          Section 74: Public documents

The following documents are Public documents-

(i) Documents forming the acts, or records of the acts

(a) Of the sovereign authority,

(ii) Of Official bodies and the Tribunals, and

(iii) Of public officers, legislative, judicial and executive, of any part of India or of the Commonwealth, or of a foreign country.                                                                                                                                                                  Section 76: Certified copies of Public Documents

Every public officer having the custody of a public document, which any person has a right to inspect, shall give that person on demand a copy of it on payment of the legal fees therefor together with a certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such document or part thereof, as the case may be, and such certificate shall be dated and subscribed by such officers with his name and his official title, and shall be sealed whenever such officer is authorized by law to make use of a seal, and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies.

 In short, in view of the provisions of Indian Evidence Act ,  “order sheets” are relevant evidence in connection with any assessment, penalty, appeal, revision, rectification or any other proceedings taken against assessee or concerned parties.

The order sheets are public documents within the meaning of S.74 of the Evidence Act and AO  is duty bound to give the records u/s 76 of the Evidence Act.