Alternative recovery remedies under sales tax law cannot be used together; the authority must elect one mode at a time.

Section 24(2) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 provides two distinct recovery modes: recovery as arrears of land revenue under clause (a) and recovery through application to a Magistrate under clause (b). Because the statute uses the word "or", the remedies are alternative and not cumulative. The authority must therefore elect one mode at a time and cannot pursue both recovery mechanisms concurrently or simultaneously in respect of the same demand. The statutory scheme excludes simultaneous resort to both clauses unless the legislature expressly permits it.

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Issues: Whether the recovery remedies under clauses (a) and (b) of section 24(2) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 could be pursued concurrently and simultaneously by the authority.

Analysis: Section 24(2) provides two distinct modes of recovery, namely, recovery as arrears of land revenue under clause (a) and recovery on application to a Magistrate under clause (b). The use of the word "or" between the two clauses indicates that the legislature intended the remedies to be alternative and not cumulative. The statutory scheme therefore excludes simultaneous resort to both modes of recovery in respect of the same demand, and the authority must elect one remedy at a time.

Conclusion: The authority cannot prosecute remedies under clauses (a) and (b) of section 24(2) concurrently or simultaneously and must proceed under only one of them at a time.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the distraint proceedings succeeded to the extent that simultaneous use of both recovery mechanisms was disallowed, while the authority remained free to adopt either remedy separately.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute provides two distinct recovery modes disjunctively, the remedies are exclusive of one another and cannot be pursued at the same time unless the statute expressly or by necessary implication permits it.

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