Recovery of company tax dues cannot be enforced against a former director's personal bank account under Odisha VAT law.

The Odisha VAT recovery provisions did not authorise attachment of a former director's personal bank account for a company's assessed tax dues. Liability remained in the company's name, and Section 71 of the Odisha Value Added Tax Act, 2005 did not permit recovery from directors merely because of their past association with the company. Section 51 read with Rule 55 also provided a special recovery mechanism, but not one extending to attachment of an individual director's account for company dues. The personal bank attachment was therefore held legally unsustainable and was set aside.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Department could attach the bank account of a former director of a company for recovery of the company's tax dues under the Odisha Value Added Tax regime.

Analysis: The liability for the assessed dues stood in the name of the company, which was treated throughout as the assessee. Section 71 of the Odisha Value Added Tax Act, 2005 did not authorise recovery of a company's dues from its directors, and no other provision of the Act was shown to empower the Department to proceed against an individual director merely because of past association with the company. Section 51 of the Act read with Rule 55 of the Odisha Value Added Tax Rules provided a special mode of recovery, but that mode also did not extend to attaching the personal bank account of a director for company dues. The grievance that the petitioner had ceased to be a director long before the attachment was not answered in the impugned order.

Conclusion: The attachment of the petitioner's individual bank account was not legally sustainable and was set aside.

---