Penalty under Rajasthan sales tax law needs missing or false documents, not a mere defect in filling the declaration form.

Penalty under Section 78(5) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994 is confined to cases of non-compliance with the prescribed document-carrying requirement, or where the documents or declaration produced are false or forged. Where the vehicle carried the required goods documents and the ST 18A declaration form was produced, a mere defect in filling the form did not attract the penal provision. On the facts recorded, no finding of false, bogus, or forged documents was made, so penalty was not leviable and the deletion of penalty was sustained.

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Issues: Whether penalty under Section 78(5) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994 could be imposed when the vehicle was carrying the goods documents and the declaration form ST 18 A was produced, but the form was alleged to be not properly filled in compliance with Section 78(2) read with Rule 53.

Analysis: Penalty under Section 78(5) is attracted only where there is non-compliance with the requirement to carry the prescribed documents, or where the documents or declaration produced are false or forged. On the facts found, the person in charge had produced the necessary documents, the declaration form was also produced, and no finding was recorded that any document was false or bogus. Mere defect in the manner of filling the form did not bring the case within the penal provision.

Conclusion: Penalty under Section 78(5) was not leviable, and the orders deleting the penalty were . The petition failed and was dismissed.

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