Writ jurisdiction and delayed exemption form: alternative remedy did not bar review of a tax assessment.

Availability of a statutory appeal did not operate as an absolute bar to writ jurisdiction where the challenge concerned non-consideration of a material factual and legal issue. The appellate remedy under the Bihar Value Added Tax Act was limited to a substantial question of law, so Article 226 scrutiny remained available in an appropriate case. On the tax and penalty issue, assessment under the Bihar Finance Act could not be sustained where Form IX-C, relevant to the exemption claim, was furnished only after the assessment order and the assessee was not at fault for the delay. The orders were quashed and the matter remanded for fresh consideration.

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Issues: (i) Whether the existence of an appellate remedy under the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 barred exercise of writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. (ii) Whether the assessment, appellate and revisional orders sustaining tax and penalty under Section 16(8) of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 deserved to be quashed and the matter remanded on the ground that Form IX-C was furnished only after the assessment order.

Issue (i): Whether the existence of an appellate remedy under the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 barred exercise of writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: The availability of a statutory appeal did not operate as an absolute bar to writ jurisdiction. The appellate remedy under Section 79 of the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 was confined to cases involving a substantial question of law, and the challenge raised was not to the merits alone but to the failure of the authorities to consider a basic factual and legal issue. The repeal of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 by the subsequent Act did not foreclose scrutiny under Article 226 in an appropriate case.

Conclusion: The writ petition was maintainable in the facts of the case, and the existence of an alternative remedy did not bar relief.

Issue (ii): Whether the assessment, appellate and revisional orders sustaining tax and penalty under Section 16(8) of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 deserved to be quashed and the matter remanded on the ground that Form IX-C was furnished only after the assessment order.

Analysis: The decisive question was whether tax could be levied when the declaration in Form IX-C, which bore on the claim of exemption, was issued only after the assessment order and had also required correction. Since the petitioner was not at fault for the delayed issuance of the form, the authorities ought to have considered that material circumstance instead of treating the case as one of suppression. In these circumstances, retention of the assessment and penalty was unsustainable, and the matter required fresh consideration by the assessing authority.

Conclusion: The impugned orders were quashed and the matter was remanded to the Commercial Tax Officer for fresh decision in accordance with law.

Final Conclusion: The petitioner succeeded in obtaining writ relief, with the tax and penalty orders set aside and the assessment remitted for reconsideration, though costs were imposed for the lapse in pursuing the statutory remedy.

Ratio Decidendi: The existence of a statutory appellate remedy does not absolutely bar writ jurisdiction where the challenge is to non-consideration of a material issue, and a tax assessment cannot be sustained when the assessee was prevented from producing a crucial exemption declaration because it was issued only after the assessment order.

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