Section 370 — Execution for costs awarded by Supreme Court. Successor to s.266 of the 1961 Act.
Section 370 is in Chapter XVIII — Appeals Revisions and Alternate Dispute Resolutions, which runs from section 356 to section 389.
The section deals only with executing a costs order of the Supreme Court. On a petition made for the execution of such an order in respect of any costs awarded by it, the High Court may transmit the order for execution to any court subordinate to the High Court.
An award of costs by the Supreme Court has to be realised somewhere, and that Court does not itself run execution proceedings. The section supplies the route: a petition to the High Court, which may pass the order down to a subordinate court that has the machinery to execute it.
Two limits are in the words. The section is confined to costs awarded by the Supreme Court, not to its orders generally, and the High Court's power is permissive, exercised on a petition made for that purpose rather than of its own motion. What the High Court does is transmit the order, so the execution itself happens in the subordinate court, and the party seeking costs starts by petitioning the High Court.
An assessee succeeds in an appeal in the Supreme Court and is awarded costs. To realise them he petitions the High Court for execution of the order in respect of those costs. The High Court may transmit the order to a subordinate court, which then executes it; the assessee cannot begin by filing execution proceedings in the subordinate court on his own.
In a petition to the High Court for execution of a Supreme Court order awarding costs, after tax litigation has ended in that Court — not in any notice, return or assessment proceeding.
transmit the order for execution to any court subordinate to the High Court
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.