Exemption fee payment date turns on actual bank deposit; treasury chalan is only proof of prior payment.

For exemption under rule 20-B of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Rules, the decisive requirement was actual deposit of the prescribed exemption fee before, or on the same date as, the application. The treasury chalan was treated only as evidence of deposit, not as the operative act that created payment. On that reading, an application became competent only once the correct amount had been deposited, and filing the chalan later could not shift the effective date of payment.

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Issues: Whether, for the purpose of obtaining exemption under rule 20-B of the Rules framed under the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act, the exemption fee was to be treated as paid on the date when the money was deposited in the bank, or only on the date when the treasury chalan evidencing that deposit was filed with the application.

Analysis: The requirement of the rule was treated as one of substance, namely that the prescribed amount had been deposited before or on the same date as the application. The treasury chalan was held to be only evidence of the deposit and not the operative act itself. The court read the rule as requiring prior payment of the correct amount, because the application became competent only when the fee had been properly calculated and paid, and the chalan merely furnished proof of that fact.

Conclusion: The fee was held payable from 22 August 1957, when the deposit was made, and not from 24 August 1957, when the chalan was filed; the answer was against the assessee and in favour of the department.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a fiscal rule requires an application to be accompanied by a treasury chalan showing deposit, the decisive requirement is actual prior deposit of the prescribed amount, and the chalan serves only as proof of that deposit.

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