Strict compliance with settlement scheme payment governs eligibility; selective reliance on Section 7 clauses was rejected.

An applicant under the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax (Settlement of Arrears) Act, 2011 must strictly comply with the mandatory payment conditions at the time of filing the settlement application. Section 7 was held to operate by reference to the applicable category of arrears, and could not be invoked selectively by relying on one clause while ignoring the others. Because the petitioner had not made the prescribed payment when the application was filed, the settlement benefit was unavailable. The argument based on pending proceedings also failed in view of the statutory deeming withdrawal provision, and rejection of the settlement application was upheld in favour of the Revenue.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to settlement under the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax (Settlement of Arrears) Act, 2011 despite not satisfying the minimum payment requirement under the scheme and whether Sections 7(a) and 7(c) were wrongly invoked together.

Analysis: The scheme required an applicant to comply with the mandatory conditions at the time of making the settlement application. Section 7 set out different categories of arrears and the applicable payment rates, and the Court held that the provision could not be read as permitting selective reliance on one clause while ignoring the others. The Court found that the petitioner had not made the payment prescribed by the Act when the application was filed and could not claim the benefit of the scheme on that basis. The pending proceedings argument was also rejected in view of the statutory deeming withdrawal provision on filing of the settlement application.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not entitled to the settlement benefit, and the rejection of the settlement application was upheld in favour of the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: An applicant under a statutory settlement scheme must strictly satisfy the mandatory payment conditions prescribed by the scheme at the time of application, and cannot claim the benefit by selective reliance on only one applicable clause of the governing provision.

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