Transferee liability for unpaid sales tax extends to a going-concern business transfer, with writ relief unavailable.

A purchaser of a business as a going concern, where stock-in-trade, machinery, furniture and goodwill are transferred, is treated as a transferee and therefore a dealer under the Bengal Finance Sales Tax Act, 1941, even if some assets and liabilities are excluded. The transferee provision extends to sales tax payable in respect of the transferred business that remained unpaid at the date of transfer, because assessment only quantifies an existing charging liability and need not have been completed before transfer. Writ relief is not available where the Act provides a workable scheme of delegation, appeal, revision and review and no jurisdictional error is shown.

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Issues: (i) whether the purchaser of a business as a going concern, with stock-in-trade, machinery, furniture and goodwill transferred, but with some assets and liabilities excluded, was a transferee and therefore a dealer under the sales tax law; (ii) whether liability under the transferee provision extended to sales tax remaining unpaid even though the tax had not yet been assessed at the time of transfer; and (iii) whether writ relief was maintainable despite the statutory machinery for delegation, appeal, revision and review.

Issue (i): whether the purchaser of a business as a going concern, with stock-in-trade, machinery, furniture and goodwill transferred, but with some assets and liabilities excluded, was a transferee and therefore a dealer under the sales tax law.

Analysis: The transfer covered the whole undertaking and the right to carry on the business. The exclusion of some assets or liabilities did not prevent ownership of the business from passing to the purchaser. The statutory concept of transferee was attracted because the business of selling goods stood transferred in substance.

Conclusion: The purchaser was a transferee within Section 17 of the Bengal Finance Sales Tax Act, 1941, and as such a dealer under the Act.

Issue (ii): whether liability under the transferee provision extended to sales tax remaining unpaid even though the tax had not yet been assessed at the time of transfer.

Analysis: Liability to pay tax arose under the charging provision, and assessment was only the process of quantifying it. The phrase covering tax payable in respect of the business remaining unpaid was not confined to tax already assessed. Once the liability existed and remained unsatisfied, the transferee could be called upon to discharge it.

Conclusion: The transferee remained liable for tax payable in respect of the transferred business even though the amount had not been assessed before transfer.

Issue (iii): whether writ relief was maintainable despite the statutory machinery for delegation, appeal, revision and review.

Analysis: The Act provided an effective framework for delegation of functions and for appellate, revisional and review remedies. The registration remained in force and had not been cancelled. In those circumstances, the petitioner could not claim that no remedy existed or that there had been any refusal or excess of jurisdiction warranting writ interference.

Conclusion: Writ relief was not maintainable, as the petitioner had an adequate statutory remedy and no jurisdictional error was shown.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the requisition failed in full, and the statutory assessment process was permitted to proceed against the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: A transferee of a business as a going concern is liable for unpaid sales tax of the transferred business under the transferee provision, even if the tax had not yet been assessed, and writ interference is inappropriate where the statute provides an adequate remedial scheme.

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