Pending registration application protects dealer from notice based on failure to register during the delay period.

Where a dealer had duly applied for registration and the application remained pending due to delay by the tax officer, the dealer could not be treated as having failed to get itself registered for the period covered by that pending application. A notice premised on such alleged failure was therefore unsustainable for the period after the application was filed until registration was dealt with, but it remained operative for the earlier period before the application was made.

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Issues: Whether the assessee could be treated as having failed to get itself registered, so as to sustain the assessment notice, during the period after the registration application was filed but before it was disposed of.

Analysis: The assessee had filed a proper application for registration, and the delay in disposing of that application was attributable to the Commercial Tax Officer. Where the application remained pending through no fault of the assessee, the assessee could not be treated as having failed to get itself registered for the period covered by the pending application. The notice based on such alleged failure was therefore unsustainable for the period after the application was filed and before registration was dealt with, though it remained effective for the earlier period before the application was made.

Conclusion: The notice was quashed for the period from 10 November 1966 to 30 September 1967, but it remained valid for the period from 8 July 1966 to 9 November 1966, in favour of the assessee to that extent only.

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