Statutory entitlement to C and F Forms cannot be curtailed by an executive undertaking imposed without legal authority.

Under the Central Sales Tax regime, issuance of C and F Forms is governed by the Act and the Rules, and once the prescribed conditions are met the authority must issue them. The State could not require an additional undertaking as a precondition, because no provision in the statutory framework authorised a further condition safeguarding potential future tax liability under a different regime. The Court held that an executive memorandum and the appended undertaking were ultra vires, since administrative instructions cannot add to or alter statutory requirements. The undertaking requirement was therefore unauthorized, and the State could not insist on it before issuing the forms.

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Issues: Whether the State could insist on an undertaking, as a precondition for issuance of C and F Forms under the Central Sales Tax regime, and whether the office memorandum and the undertaking appended to it were ultra vires the governing statutory framework.

Analysis: The statutory scheme under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and the relevant Rules governs issuance of C and F Forms and specifies the conditions for their grant. Once those conditions are satisfied, the authority has a corresponding duty to issue the forms. No provision in the Act or the Rules authorised the State to impose an additional requirement of an undertaking safeguarding potential future tax liability under a different regime. An executive instruction could not add to, alter, or amend the statutory conditions prescribed by legislation and delegated rules. The Court therefore rejected the attempt to justify the added condition as a mere administrative or protective measure, holding that the asserted revenue concern could not supply absent statutory authority.

Conclusion: The insistence on the undertaking was held to be unauthorized and ultra vires, and the State was not permitted to make its furnishing a condition precedent to issuance of C and F Forms.

Final Conclusion: The statutory entitlement to obtain C and F Forms could not be curtailed by an executive memorandum imposing a new substantive condition not found in the governing enactments and rules.

Ratio Decidendi: Executive instructions cannot impose additional conditions for grant of statutory forms where the statute and rules exhaustively regulate entitlement and do not authorise such a precondition.

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