Third-party property cannot be attached for company VAT dues absent express statutory liability under the tax recovery scheme.

Provisional attachment and recovery under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 are confined to property of the defaulting dealer or a person expressly made liable by the statute. The Court stated that section 45 permits attachment only of the dealer's property, while sections 44 and 46 do not extend recovery to a third party merely because it leases land to the dealer. A Hindu Undivided Family remained the owner of the land, and the fact that some members were directors of the company did not make the HUF property liable for the company's VAT dues. The attachment and mutation objection were therefore unsustainable, and recovery from the HUF property was not permitted.

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Issues: Whether the property owned by a Hindu Undivided Family, but leased to a company, could be provisionally attached or subjected to recovery proceedings for the company's VAT dues merely because some members of the HUF were directors of the company.

Analysis: The Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 permits provisional attachment only of property belonging to the defaulting dealer under section 45. Recovery under section 44 is confined to monies due to or held for the dealer by another person, while section 46 authorises recovery of tax as arrears of land revenue only from the dealer or other person liable under the Act. The Court held that the expression "other person" in this scheme does not extend to the owner of land merely because it is leased to the dealer, and that the dues of a company cannot be recovered from the personal property of its directors in the absence of an express statutory provision. The HUF remained the owner of the land, and the lease created only a lessor-lessee relationship; the company's default did not convert the HUF's property into property of the dealer.

Conclusion: The attachment and mutation objection were unsustainable, and recovery of the company's dues from the HUF property was not permitted.

Ratio Decidendi: Under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003, provisional attachment and recovery can be enforced only against the property of the defaulting dealer or a statutorily liable person, and not against property of a third party merely because it is leased to the dealer or because its members are connected with the dealer company.

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