Statutory tax adjudication bars writ courts from giving advance declaratory rulings on liability before the remedy is pursued.

A writ petition seeking a direct declaration on tax rate was held not maintainable because the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 provided a complete adjudicatory mechanism and no advance-ruling provision. The High Court held that the petitioner had to first obtain a determination from the assessing authority, and that writ jurisdiction could not be used to bypass the statutory process by seeking a bare declaratory ruling without consequential relief. Questions of fact and law were required to be decided initially by the authority created under the statute, leaving the petitioner to pursue the remedies available under the Act if aggrieved.

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Issues: Whether a writ petition seeking only a declaration on the rate of tax, without first pursuing the statutory adjudicatory mechanism under the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005, was maintainable.

Analysis: The writ court declined to entertain the petition because the statute contained an adjudicatory mechanism for deciding the tax dispute and no advance-ruling provision existed in the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005. The petitioner had not first obtained a determination from the assessing authority, and the Court treated the attempt to secure a direct declaration as an impermissible bypass of the statutory process. The Court also applied the principle that declaratory relief without consequential adjudication is not ordinarily to be granted, and emphasized that questions of fact and law should be decided in the first instance by the authority created under the statute. The cited precedents on threat of infringement and alternative remedy were held to be distinguishable on their facts.

Conclusion: The writ petition was not maintainable for seeking an advance ruling or bare declaration before exhausting the statutory remedy.

Final Conclusion: The petitioner was left to raise the tax objection before the assessing authority and pursue the remedies available under the statute if aggrieved.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute provides a complete adjudicatory machinery, the High Court should not be asked in writ jurisdiction to give an advance declaratory ruling on tax liability in the first instance, especially when no consequential relief is sought and the statutory remedy has not been pursued.

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