Special reassessment penalty cannot be implied where section 16-C contains no penalty clause; general penalty provision not applicable.

Penalty under section 12(5)(iii) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act was held not to apply to delay or default in filing a return under section 16-C. The reasoning was that section 16-C created a special reassessment mechanism for price-variation receipts, while the statute expressly provided penalty and waiver provisions in allied reassessment sections such as 16, 16-A, 16-AA and 16-AAA. That legislative pattern showed the omission of a penalty clause in section 16-C to be intentional, so a general penal provision could not be imported by implication. The penalty notices and orders were therefore set aside.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 12(5)(iii) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 could be imposed for delay or default in filing the return under section 16-C of the Act.

Analysis: Section 16-C, inserted by Tamil Nadu Act 78 of 1986, required a dealer receiving amounts due to price variation to file a return within the prescribed time. The Act expressly provided for penalty in several other reassessment provisions, including sections 16, 16-A, 16-AA and 16-AAA, and also made provision for waiver or reduction under section 16-B. The absence of any penalty provision in section 16-C was treated as deliberate. Although the returns were filed late and the tax was also paid belatedly, the Tribunal held that the statutory scheme did not authorise invocation of section 12(5)(iii) for a default under section 16-C, and the power to levy penalty under section 12(5)(iii) had not been made applicable to reassessment under section 16-C.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 12(5)(iii) was not leviable for default under section 16-C, and the assessee succeeded on the jurisdictional challenge.

Final Conclusion: The penalty orders and notices were set aside because the Act did not confer power to impose penalty for the default dealt with by section 16-C.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special reassessment provision contains no penalty clause and the statute shows that penalties are expressly provided in allied provisions, the omission must be treated as intentional and penalty cannot be imported from a general penal section by implication.

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