Publication of subordinate legislation must be proven before enforcement; a Gazette date alone did not validate the enhanced scooter tax rate.

Subordinate legislation takes effect against affected persons only when it is duly published or otherwise promulgated in a form reasonably knowable to the public. Mere printing of a notification with an earlier Gazette date was insufficient where contemporaneous publication and public availability were not proved, and the rebuttable presumptions as to official acts and Gazette publication were displaced on the facts. The enhanced tax notification on scooters was therefore not enforceable against the assessee from the date it bore, and the assessment based on that enhanced rate could not stand.

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Issues: Whether the notification enhancing the rate of tax on scooters could be enforced from the date borne on the Official Gazette when the assessee asserted that it was not made public or known to dealers until a later date.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that subordinate legislation must be published or promulgated in a manner that makes it reasonably known to the public before it can operate against persons affected by it. Mere printing of the notification with an earlier date was not enough on the facts, because the material showed that the assessee had no real means of knowing of the notification on that date and the respondents did not satisfactorily prove contemporaneous publication and public availability. The presumptions under the evidence law regarding official acts and official gazettes were treated as rebuttable on the facts of the case, and the assessee successfully displaced them.

Conclusion: The notification was not enforceable against the assessee from the date it bore, and the assessment based on the enhanced rate could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Subordinate legislation does not take effect against the public until it is duly published or otherwise promulgated in a reasonable and knowable form; a mere date on the gazette is insufficient where effective publication is not proved.

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