Use of international numerals in accounts upheld as a valid accounting rule within delegated rule-making power.

Rule 45(1-B) of the A.P. General Sales Tax Rules, 1957, which required dealers to maintain accounts using international Indian numerals, was treated as a permissible accounting requirement rather than a restriction on language or script. The court reasoned that numerals are distinct from language, that the rule served accounting discipline and administrative convenience, and that it caused no real handicap to dealers. As section 25 of the Act authorised rules governing the manner of account maintenance, the rule was found within delegated power and not violative of the constitutional guarantees invoked. The challenge accordingly failed and the rule remained valid.

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Issues: Whether rule 45(1-B) of the A.P. General Sales Tax Rules, 1957, requiring dealers to use international numerals in maintaining accounts, was ultra vires section 25 of the A.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1957, and violative of Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 19(1)(d), 19(1)(e), 19(1)(g) and 343 of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: Numerals were held to stand apart from language and, therefore, a prescription regarding the form of numerals did not amount to an impermissible restriction on the use of Hindi or Devanagari script. The requirement to use international Indian numerals in accounts was treated as a matter of accounting discipline and administrative convenience, and it did not place any real handicap on the dealer. Section 25 of the Act enabled the framing of rules governing the manner of maintenance of accounts, and the challenged rule was found to be consistent with that rule-making power. The rule was also held not to infringe the constitutional guarantees invoked by the petitioner.

Conclusion: The challenge to rule 45(1-B) failed; the rule was upheld as valid and not unconstitutional.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory rule prescribing the use of international numerals in accounts is valid where numerals are treated as distinct from language and the parent Act authorises rules regulating the manner of account maintenance.

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