Pendency of tax appeal does not suspend duty to pay assessed sales tax or defeat criminal liability.

Section 19(b) treats wilful failure to pay assessed sales tax within the time allowed as an offence, and pendency of an appeal against the assessment does not suspend that statutory duty or bar prosecution. The liability arises on non-payment within the prescribed time, and the taxpayer cannot rely on an unresolved appellate challenge as a defence. Criminal responsibility depends on a deliberate default, not an accidental or inadvertent omission.

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Issues: Whether pendency of an appeal against the assessment of sales tax prevents criminal liability for failure to pay the assessed tax within the time allowed under section 19(b) of the General Sales Tax Act (XI of 1125).

Analysis: Section 19(b) penalises the failure to pay within the time allowed any tax assessed on a person. The liability arises when the assessed tax is not paid within the prescribed time, and the section does not require the authority to await exhaustion of appellate remedies against the assessment. Pendency of an appeal against the assessment does not postpone the statutory obligation to pay, and does not furnish a defence to prosecution. The required mental element is a wilful or deliberate failure to pay, as distinguished from an accidental or inadvertent default.

Conclusion: The pendency of the appeal against assessment did not bar prosecution or negate criminal liability under section 19(b); the acquittal was erroneous and the conviction was warranted.

Ratio Decidendi: A person commits the offence under section 19(b) when he wilfully fails to pay assessed tax within the time allowed, and an appeal against the assessment does not suspend or defeat that liability.

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