Amnesty scheme does not override a prior judicial assurance on proportionate disbursement of recovered tax amounts.

A statutory amnesty scheme does not nullify a prior judicial assurance that recoveries from defaulting selling dealers will be disbursed proportionately to the buyer whose input tax credit was denied. The State remained bound by its earlier undertaking, and the petitioner's recourse to the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalties for Late Fee Act, 2019 did not defeat that obligation. Any payment from recovered amounts would, however, be confined to the proportionate extent of denied input tax credit and adjusted for the benefit already obtained under the amnesty scheme.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner's recourse to the amnesty scheme could defeat the State's earlier assurance that amounts recovered from defaulting selling dealers would be disbursed to the petitioner to the extent of input tax credit denied.

Analysis: The petition was under Article 226 challenging the assessment-related order, but the immediate controversy was the effect of the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalties for Late Fee Act, 2019 on the State's earlier undertaking recorded in the prior decision concerning denied set-off on account of defaulting selling dealers. The State ed that it remained bound by that assurance and stated that any recovery from defaulting dealers would be disbursed to the petitioner proportionately, after accounting for the benefit obtained under the amnesty scheme. The Court held that the petitioner's opting for the amnesty scheme would not affect the State's obligation under the earlier assurance, and that the apprehension that the assurance would become ineffective was unfounded.

Conclusion: The petitioner's entitlement to disbursement under the earlier assurance remained unaffected by the amnesty scheme, though the amount payable would be restricted to the proportionate extent of input tax credit disallowed and adjusted for the waiver benefit.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory amnesty scheme does not override or nullify a binding judicial assurance that recovered tax from defaulting dealers will be disbursed proportionately to the dealer whose set-off was denied.

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