Statutory tribunal remedy prevails for goods detention disputes, barring direct writ access under the Tamil Nadu tax framework.

A challenge to detention and release of goods was held to fall within the jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal under section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Taxation Special Tribunal Act, 1992, because that jurisdiction extends to disputes concerning levy, assessment, collection and enforcement of tax, including connected or incidental matters. The court treated the release of goods under section 42 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 as a matter within the Tribunal's competence and accepted the preliminary objection that the writ remedy could not be invoked directly. The petitioner was therefore required to first approach the statutory Tribunal, and the writ petition was not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition was maintainable in view of the availability of a remedy before the Special Tribunal constituted under the Tamil Nadu Taxation Special Tribunal Act, 1992, for a challenge relating to detention and release of goods.

Analysis: The jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal under section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Taxation Special Tribunal Act, 1992 extends to disputes concerning levy, assessment, collection and enforcement of tax under specified State Acts and matters connected or incidental thereto. On that basis, the question of release of goods under section 42 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was held to fall within the Tribunal's competence. The Court accepted the preliminary objection that, in view of the statutory tribunal mechanism and the principle noticed from the Supreme Court decision in L. Chandra Kumar, the writ remedy could not be invoked directly without approaching the Tribunal first.

Conclusion: The writ petition was not maintainable and the petitioner was relegated to the Tribunal.

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