Check-post anti-evasion powers upheld where sales tax safeguards limit penalty, notice, hearing, and appeal protections apply.

Section 28A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, as amended, was analysed as a check-post measure to prevent tax evasion in goods liable to tax under the Act. The provision required production of prescribed documents and authorised penalty only for contravention or non-compliance without sufficient cause, with safeguards including notice, hearing, proof of prior tax payment, and appellate remedies. It was distinguished from the earlier Madras provision struck down in K.P. Abdulla because the Karnataka scheme replaced seizure and confiscation with a limited penalty-based mechanism. The provision was therefore within the incidental and ancillary legislative power and not unconstitutional.

---

---

Issues: Whether section 28A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957, as amended, was beyond the competence of the State Legislature and therefore unconstitutional.

Analysis: The substituted scheme under section 28A empowered check-post officers to require production of prescribed documents, levy penalty only where there was contravention or non-compliance without sufficient cause, and proceed against goods in limited circumstances. The Court distinguished the earlier Madras provision struck down in K.P. Abdulla because the Karnataka amendment had replaced the power of seizure and confiscation with a different penalty-based mechanism and had built in safeguards such as notice, hearing, proof of prior tax payment, and statutory appeals. The provision was treated as a measure directed to prevention of evasion of tax in respect of goods liable to tax under the Act, and therefore within the incidental and ancillary powers of the Legislature.

Conclusion: Section 28A, as amended, was held to be within legislative competence and not unconstitutional.

Ratio Decidendi: A check-post provision aimed at preventing evasion of sales tax, coupled with notice, hearing, and appellate safeguards, is constitutionally valid as an ancillary and incidental measure to the taxing power where it operates only in relation to goods liable to tax under the Act.

---