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TMI Blog1953 (4) TMI 12X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erent kinds of seeds-sarson, toria and til. The petitioners in the various cases applied under Section 18 of the East Punjab General Sales Tax Act of 1948 as to their liability to pay sales tax but in each one of the cases they were told by the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, by letter dated the 6th of February, 1952, "that the intention of Government underlying the exemption contained in item 57 of the sche- dule appended to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, is to exempt 'ghanis' worked by human or animal power only and not by electric power." In each one of these petitions the allegation is that the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, or the officers under him are threatening to levy sales tax on edible oils manufa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s arises and that the only ground for the petitioners' coming to this Court direct without seeking relief under the machinery provided by the Sales Tax Act of 1948 is that the article taxed is not within the Act of 1948, that there is unconstitu- tional delegation of legislative power and that there is contravention of the Parliamentary Act LII of 1952 and therefore he should have proceeded in accordance with the provisions of the Act and not come direct to this Court. The petitioners' reply to this is that there is no other remedy which is equally appropriate, efficacious or expeditious as the remedy given by Article 226 of the Constitution, but I am unable to agree with this. Nor is there any sound ground for short circuiting the procedur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cases came to the conclusion that the proper remedy of an assessee who felt aggrieved by an action taken by an Income-tax Officer under Section 34 was to take an appeal under the Act and then have the case stated to the High Court. A similar view was taken in another income-tax matter, Lachhman Das v. Commissioner of Income-tax(3). (1) [1947] 15 I.T.R. 332; A.I.R. 1947 P.C. 78. (3) [1952] 22 I.T.R. 418. (2) [1950] 18 I.T.R. 618; 52 P.L.R. 267. A case under the Punjab Sales Tax Act in which an application was made under Article 226 was decided by this Bench in Dharam Chand Kishore Chand v. The Excise and Taxation Commissioner(1), and it was held that an application for issuing a writ so as to short-circut the pro- cedure provided by the East ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th this. The machinery provided under the Act cannot be said to be ineffi- cacious. He then relies on a judgment of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in Messrs. Hoosein Kasam Dada v. The State of Madhya Pradesh(4). All that their Lordships decided in that case was that an appeal by an assessee was to be governed by the law which existed at the time of the assessment and not by a subsequent amendment of law even if it has retrospective effect. This was decided by their Lordships on appeal from a judgment of the High Court of Nagpur, but they did not hold that the machinery provided under the Sales Tax Act of that State was not to be employed for redress of grievances by assessees but they could go direct to the High Court and make applica ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... High Court. Another case cited on behalf of the petitioners is Cosmopolitan Club, Madras v. Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Triplicane Division(4), where Mack, J., issued a writ of mandamus in the case of a social club oil the ground that the remedy provided by the Sales Tax Act was a long and tedious avenue. I am unable to derive much assistance from this judg- ment as it seems to have been decided on its own facts. One other fact must be mentioned at this stage. When the peti- tioners' counsel was asked if his clients had been charging any sales tax from their clients, we were informed by the client who was present that the petitioners had not been doing so, but when asked for an affidavit in support of this, no affidavit was filed for rea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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