Tax arrears recoverable as fine cannot support additional default imprisonment or a separate penal fine.

Section 19(b) of the Travancore-Cochin General Sales Tax Act was analysed as authorising only a recovery mechanism for specified tax arrears, to be enforced as if they were a fine, and not as creating a separate sentence of fine or permitting default imprisonment. Section 64 of the Indian Penal Code was treated as inapplicable unless a valid fine had first been imposed, and it could not be used to convert tax arrears into an additional penal sentence where the statute limited punishment for the offence. A direction for imprisonment in default of payment was therefore beyond jurisdiction, while recovery of the arrears under the statutory process remained available.

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Issues: Whether, under section 19(b) of the Travancore-Cochin General Sales Tax Act, the Magistrate could direct recovery of arrears of sales tax as if they were a fine and also impose imprisonment in default of payment.

Analysis: Section 19(b) required the Magistrate to specify the tax arrears in the conviction order so that the amount could be recovered as if it were a fine under the criminal process. That provision authorised only the recovery machinery applicable to fines and did not itself create a further sentence of fine for the arrears. Section 64 of the Indian Penal Code applied only where a sentence of fine had been validly imposed; it could not be used to transform the specified tax arrears into an additional fine, especially where the statute itself limited the punishment for the offence to a fine not exceeding Rs. 1,000. A further direction for imprisonment in default of payment of the arrears was therefore beyond jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The direction imposing three months' imprisonment in default of payment of the tax arrears was illegal and was set aside, while the specification of the arrears for recovery was maintained.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeded to the extent that the default imprisonment was quashed, but the arrears remained recoverable in the manner provided by the statute.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute authorises arrears to be specified for recovery as if they were a fine, that fiction extends only to recovery and does not permit the court to impose an additional fine or default imprisonment beyond the punishment authorised by the statute.

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