Pre-commencement appointment notification upheld as valid where it only enabled enforcement from the Act's commencement date.

A pre-commencement notification appointing the revisional authority under the Haryana Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was valid because it was issued after the Act received assent but before the appointed day. The notification merely created the administrative machinery for implementation and did not itself exercise revisional power retrospectively. Section 21 of the Punjab General Clauses Act, 1956 permits such orders to be made between enactment and commencement, with effect from commencement only. The challenge failed because the notification did not give the Act retrospective operation or create any jurisdictional defect.

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Issues: Whether the notification issued on 31.03.2003 appointing the revisional authority under the Haryana Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was valid despite the Act coming into force on 01.04.2003, and whether such notification gave the Act retrospective operation.

Analysis: The Act had received assent and was notified before the appointed day, while the impugned notification only created the administrative mechanism for enforcement and did not itself operate on any completed exercise of revisional power before commencement. Section 21 of the Punjab General Clauses Act, 1956 permits the making of orders between the passing and commencement of an enactment, with such orders taking effect only from commencement. Since the revisional authority acted much later, the notification did not amount to retrospective application of the Act and there was no jurisdictional infirmity in issuing it in advance for implementation purposes.

Conclusion: The notification was held to be valid, and the challenge to it failed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was dismissed as the pre-commencement notification was upheld as a lawful measure for enforcement of the tax statute from the appointed day.

Ratio Decidendi: An order appointing an authority may be validly issued after an enactment is passed but before its commencement, provided it takes effect only from the commencement date and does not itself confer operative power retrospectively.

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