Mandatory transit documents must be produced at interception; belated appellate filing cannot cure non-compliance for penalty purposes.

Mandatory transit documents under Section 28-A(2) of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act had to be carried and produced at the time of interception. Because the goods vehicle driver produced no required documents before the Check Post Officer, and only later relied on a photocopy of Form No. II before the appellate authority, the earlier non-compliance was not cured. The Tribunal's reliance on an earlier decision was found inapplicable on these facts, as the assessee had failed to meet the statutory document requirement at the relevant stage. The penalty under Section 28-A(4) was therefore held sustainable, and the Tribunal's order setting it aside was found unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether penalty under Section 28-A(4) of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 was rightly sustained when the prescribed transit documents under Section 28-A(2) were not produced at the time of interception and were sought to be relied upon only later before the appellate authority.

Analysis: Section 28-A(2) requires the person in charge of the goods vehicle to carry the prescribed documents during transport. On the facts, none of the required documents were produced when the vehicles were intercepted or before the Check Post Officer. The first valid attempt was a photocopy of Form No. II produced before the appellate authority, which did not cure the earlier non-compliance. The Tribunal's reliance on an earlier decision was held to be inapplicable because the present case involved a clear failure to produce the mandatory documents at the relevant stage and the assessee had not contested the penalty before the Check Post Officer.

Conclusion: The penalty under Section 28-A(4) was rightly leviable and the Tribunal's order setting it aside was unsustainable; the issue was decided in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The revision petitions failed, and the order of the Tribunal was set aside in consequence of the assessee's failure to comply with the statutory document requirements for movement of goods.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute mandates carriage and production of specified transit documents at the time of interception, belated production of a photocopy before the appellate authority does not defeat a penalty validly imposed for initial non-compliance.

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