Civil court jurisdiction under sales tax law remains open absent express or implied statutory exclusion.

The Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939 did not expressly or by necessary implication exclude ordinary civil court jurisdiction in suits challenging levy and collection of sales tax. Although the Act provided appellate and revisional remedies, and sections 17 and 18 imposed sanction, good-faith, and limitation requirements, those provisions were treated as recognising the existence of civil suits rather than barring them. The settled rule applied was that civil jurisdiction is excluded only by clear statutory language or necessary implication, so the Act did not amount to a complete code ousting civil remedies. Civil suits were therefore maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, by providing appeal and revision machinery and by imposing restrictions on suits, expressly or by necessary implication ousted the jurisdiction of the ordinary Civil Courts in suits challenging levy and collection of sales tax.

Analysis: The Act created an appellate remedy under section 11 and a revisional power in the Board under section 12, but those provisions did not amount to an express bar against civil suits. The scheme of the Act was examined along with sections 17 and 18. Section 17 imposed sanction and good-faith protections for officers, while section 18 stated that no suit could be instituted against the Crown unless brought within six months from the complained-of act. That language was treated as recognising the existence of a suit, subject only to limitation, rather than excluding civil jurisdiction altogether. Applying the settled principle that civil court jurisdiction is excluded only where the statute says so expressly or by necessary implication, the Court held that the Act did not create a complete code barring ordinary civil remedies.

Conclusion: The civil suits were maintainable, and the objection to civil court jurisdiction failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory bar to civil jurisdiction must be express or arise by necessary implication; a provision that permits suits subject to a limitation period or sanction requirement recognises civil jurisdiction rather than excludes it.

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