Binding declaration of ultra vires law bars tax recovery; pending appeal and customer recovery do not revive authority.

A subordinate sales tax authority cannot continue to enforce or appropriate tax under a provision already declared ultra vires by the High Court, because such a declaration renders the provision inoperative within its jurisdiction. Pending appellate proceedings do not permit the authority to disregard that binding declaration, and recovery of the amount from customers does not create power to make an otherwise unauthorised appropriation or demand. Where the assessing authority refuses to accept the binding legal position, relief under Article 226 is available. The appropriation under section 8-A(4) and the consequential demand were therefore quashed.

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Issues: Whether an assessing authority could appropriate tax under section 8-A(4) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act and demand payment when the provision had already been declared ultra vires; whether the authority could refuse to follow that declaration because an appeal was pending or because the amount had been recovered from customers.

Analysis: A declaration that a statutory provision is ultra vires has the effect, for the binding jurisdiction, of rendering the provision inoperative. Authorities subordinate to the High Court are bound by its declarations of law and cannot decline to act on them merely because an appeal has been filed. The fact that the assessee had recovered the amount from customers did not confer jurisdiction to make an appropriation that the officer otherwise lacked. The petitioner was also entitled to seek relief under Article 226 after the assessing authority declined to accept the legal position.

Conclusion: The appropriation under section 8-A(4) and the consequential demand were without authority and were quashed, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded because the assessment authority was bound to give effect to the prior declaration that section 8-A(4) could not be applied, and the challenged recovery action could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: A subordinate tax authority cannot ignore a binding judicial declaration that a taxing provision is ultra vires, and pending appellate proceedings do not authorise continued enforcement of that provision.

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