Scheme cut-off compliance upheld where cheque payments and contemporaneous records proved timely tender despite no separate acknowledgement.

Timely compliance with a scheme cut-off date was established where cheques for admitted tax and penalty were tendered with a covering letter before the deadline and the department received and realised the amounts. The absence of a separate application or acknowledgement did not defeat the claim when contemporaneous documents and realised payments proved payment within time. On that basis, entitlement to the Kara Samadhana Scheme was upheld and the revisional order restoring the penalty was treated as perverse.

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Issues: Whether the appellant was entitled to the benefit of the Kara Samadhana Scheme on the basis that the tax and penalty amounts were paid through cheques tendered with a covering letter before the scheme's cut-off date, and whether the revisional order restoring the penalty was perverse.

Analysis: The appeal arose under Section 24(1) of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 against a revisional order under Section 22-A(1) which had restored a penalty levied under Section 12-B(4). The relevant record showed that the cheques covering the admitted dues were tendered along with a covering letter dated before the cut-off date fixed under the scheme, and the amounts were received and realised by the department. The absence of a separate application or acknowledgement on record was held insufficient to dislodge the claim, when the surrounding material clearly established payment before the cut-off date.

Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to the benefit of the Kara Samadhana Scheme, and the revisional order was liable to be set aside as perverse.

Ratio Decidendi: Where contemporaneous documents and realised payments establish compliance with a statutory or scheme cut-off date, the benefit cannot be denied merely because a separate application or acknowledgement is not produced, if the record otherwise proves timely payment.

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