https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=257195 Penalty for short or non-payment of sales tax under Section 12 B(4) is discretionary and cannot be imposed mechanically. Where the assessee raised a bona fide dispute on taxability, pursued the issue through litigation up to the Supreme Court, and paid the tax promptly after the assessment order following the Supreme Court's declaration of law, the default is not properly characterised as deliberate, contumacious, dishonest, or in conscious disregard of the statutory duty. The authorities were required to give proper weight to the genuine legal controversy and the assessee's conduct before and after final settlement of the issue. On that basis, the penalty was held not sustainable and liable to be set aside. en-us Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0530 Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:15:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=257195 Penalty for short or non-payment of sales tax under Section 12 B(4) is discretionary and cannot be imposed mechanically. Where the assessee raised a bona fide dispute on taxability, pursued the issue through litigation up to the Supreme Court, and paid the tax promptly after the assessment order following the Supreme Court's declaration of law, the default is not properly characterised as deliberate, contumacious, dishonest, or in conscious disregard of the statutory duty. The authorities were required to give proper weight to the genuine legal controversy and the assessee's conduct before and after final settlement of the issue. On that basis, the penalty was held not sustainable and liable to be set aside. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=257195