Writ challenge to show cause notice barred where statutory appeal exists, unless the notice is plainly without jurisdiction.

Article 226 writ jurisdiction is ordinarily not to be used to challenge a show cause notice where an effective statutory remedy exists. The Supreme Court reiterated that interference is justified only if the notice is ex facie without jurisdiction or discloses no case on its face. Here, the notices related to liability for a period before the eligibility certificate was granted and were not founded on any claim that the certificate had been wrongly obtained. Because those exceptions did not apply, the High Court should not have entertained the writ petition, and the assessee was required to pursue the statutory appeal against the assessment order.

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Issues: Whether the High Court was justified in entertaining a writ petition challenging show cause notices issued under the Uttar Pradesh Trade Tax Act, 1948, and whether the assessee should have been left to pursue the statutory appeal against the assessment order.

Analysis: The notices concerned liability for the period before the eligibility certificate was granted and were not based on the premise that the certificate had been wrongly obtained. The High Court proceeded on an incorrect factual basis. The Court reiterated that writ jurisdiction under Article 226 is ordinarily not to be invoked against show cause notices unless, on the face of the notice, no offence is disclosed or the notice is ex facie without jurisdiction. In the present case, those exceptions did not apply, and the proper course was to avail the statutory remedy against the assessment order under section 9 of the Act.

Conclusion: The writ petition ought not to have been entertained, and the assessee was required to pursue the statutory appeal remedy.

Ratio Decidendi: A writ petition challenging a show cause notice is not maintainable where an effective statutory remedy exists, unless the notice is ex facie without jurisdiction or discloses no case on its face.

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