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Issues: (i) Whether the carrier was liable to action for failure to carry the prescribed documents during transit and whether such failure attracted the offence provisions. (ii) Whether the department was entitled to detain the goods and require payment of tax or furnishing of security from the carrier or other person in charge for release of the goods.
Issue (i): Whether the carrier was liable to action for failure to carry the prescribed documents during transit and whether such failure attracted the offence provisions.
Analysis: The statutory scheme required the owner or person in charge of the goods vehicle to carry the bill of sale or delivery note and other prescribed documents under sections 43 and 44. Failure to carry those documents attracted penal consequences under section 45(4)(a). The later amendment to section 42(3)(b)(ii) enlarged the field of persons against whom the department could proceed, and the earlier view that only the dealer or owner of the goods could be proceeded against no longer governed the situation.
Conclusion: The carrier was liable to proceedings for non-carrying of the prescribed documents, and the objection to such action failed.
Issue (ii): Whether the department was entitled to detain the goods and require payment of tax or furnishing of security from the carrier or other person in charge for release of the goods.
Analysis: Under section 42(3)(b)(ii), where the sale or purchase of the goods was not properly accounted for in the documents and detention was considered necessary to prevent evasion of tax, the officer could direct the driver or other person in charge, or the consignor or consignee, to pay the tax or furnish adequate security. Upon payment of tax or furnishing of security, section 42(4) required release of the goods forthwith. The composition power under section 46 also remained available in respect of the offence.
Conclusion: The detention notice and the demand linked to release of the goods were valid, and the challenge to them failed.
Final Conclusion: The statutory provisions empowered the department both to proceed for the documentary default and to insist on tax payment or security for release of the detained goods, so the writ petition was not maintainable on the merits.
Ratio Decidendi: After the amendment of section 42, the department may detain goods in transit for improper documentation and may require the driver, person in charge, consignor, or consignee to pay the tax or furnish security, while documentary default by the carrier remains punishable under section 45(4)(a).
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