Way-bill compliance for interstate consignments remains mandatory; failure to produce documents can justify seizure under West Bengal sales tax law.

Goods brought from outside West Bengal and intercepted in transit are subject to the statutory transport controls requiring production of a duly endorsed way-bill and supporting documents. Rule 210 restricts transport of such goods, and Rule 212 empowers seizure under section 70 where the person in charge fails to produce the prescribed papers on interception. The document states that chassis-vehicles brought into the State as consignment goods remained subject to this requirement, and that permanent registration or financing arrangements did not exempt them from compliance.

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Issues: Whether the seizure of the chassis-vehicles for non-production of way-bill on entry into West Bengal was lawful and whether the Tribunal was justified in sustaining the seizure and the consequent penalty proceeding.

Analysis: Rule 210 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1995 imposes restrictions on transport of goods brought from outside the State, while Rule 212 authorises seizure under section 70 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 if the person in charge fails to produce the duly endorsed way-bill and other required documents. The Court held that the vehicles in question were chassis being brought into West Bengal as consignment goods, and that the statutory requirement of production of a way-bill applied. The petitioners failed to produce valid documents on interception, and the authorities were therefore entitled to act on the failure. The plea that permanent registration or financing arrangements exempted the vehicles from the way-bill requirement was not accepted.

Conclusion: The seizure and the penalty proceeding were held to be lawful, and the Tribunal's order was upheld.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition failed because the statutory transport controls under the West Bengal sales tax law were correctly applied to the intercepted consignment, and the seizure was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods brought from outside the State are intercepted in transit, production of the prescribed way-bill and supporting documents is a mandatory statutory requirement, and failure to do so justifies seizure under the taxing statute and rules.

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