Statutory pre-deposit for tax appeals applies from the assessment order date where the amendment is already in force.

An amendment to section 34 of the Pondicherry General Sales Tax Act requiring a 25 per cent pre-deposit of the difference between assessed tax and admitted tax governed appeals where the assessment orders were passed after the amendment came into force. The court rejected the argument that the relevant date was the filing of the return or the due date for the return, holding instead that the assessment order date controls because the right of appeal is statutory and may be regulated by pre-conditions. The challenge to the pre-deposit insistence failed, and the writ petitions were dismissed.

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Issues: Whether the amended pre-deposit requirement under section 34 of the Pondicherry General Sales Tax Act, 1967 applies where the assessment orders were passed after the amendment came into force, so as to require deposit of 25 per cent of the difference between assessed tax and admitted tax before the appeals could be entertained.

Analysis: The amendment inserted a condition that an appeal could be preferred only upon deposit of 25 per cent of the difference between the tax assessed and the tax admitted. The earlier view that the relevant date was the date on which the return was filed, or the date on which the return became due, was not accepted. The decisive factor was held to be the date of the assessment order, because the right of appeal is a creature of statute and the Legislature may regulate that right by imposing a pre-condition for its exercise. Since the assessment orders were passed after the amendment had come into force, the amended provision governed the appeals.

Conclusion: The amended section 34 applied, and the petitioners were required to comply with the 25 per cent pre-deposit requirement before their appeals could be entertained.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the insistence on pre-deposit failed, and the writ petitions were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purpose of an appeal against a tax assessment, the governing date is the date of the assessment order, and an amendment imposing a statutory pre-deposit condition applies if the assessment order is made after the amendment comes into force.

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