TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1967 (9) TMI 78
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.... made by this court on the 7th August, 1963. The appellant filed a claim for Rs. 22,468.88 against the said company before the official liquidator on account of the arrears of sales tax (both Central and State) due from the former as per the following details :- Date of assessment order Assessment Years Total amount of tax assessed Tax paid Amount of tax in arrears Remarks 1 2 3 4 5 6 21.11.1955 1954-55 14,062.50 6,813.08 7,249.42 U.P.S.T. Act 31. 8.1957 1955-56 1,208.33 997.02 211.31 Do. 20. 5.1958 1956-57 324.78 324.73 0.05 Do. 9. 1.1960 1957-58 85.22 78.72 6.50 Do. 26. 9.1960 1958-59 2,291.00 2048.21 242.79 Do. ....
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....ase, as the said sales tax had been ordered to be recovered as arrears of land revenue within the twelve months next preceding the date of the winding-up order, it was entitled to priority as land revenue. As for the claim for the last two items which was totally disallowed by the official liquidator, his contention was that as under section 17 of the Sales Tax Act, the legality and correctness of an assessment order could not be challenged in any other manner except that provided in that Act and as the official liquidator had not got the assessment order in question set aside under the Act he was in error in rejecting the appellant's claim in respect of those items. After hearing Sri Sapru and the official liquidator, I am satisfied tha....
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....of the sales tax having become due and payable within the period commencing the 7th August, 1962, and ending the 7th August, 1963, is concerned, it is obvious that since the said sales tax was payable for the assessment years 1954-55 to 1958-59, it could neither have become due nor payable within the period aforementioned. It seems to me that what section 530(1)(a) envisages is, the revenue, sales tax, etc., which are currently due and payable at the time of the winding-up order and it does not include in its ambit arrears of the same. Besides, this section not only requires that the tax, etc., should have become due within the relevant period but that they should have also become payable within that period. Both these conditions must there....
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....t should be treated as revenue which has become due and payable within that period, so as to be entitled to priority under that section. The second part of the first contention of Sri Sapru has also, therefore, to be rejected. The second contention of Sri Sapru has been noticed earlier, and as such need not be repeated here. It is common ground that the assessment orders relating to the assessment year 1959-60 under the U. P. Sales Tax Act and the Central Act, were passed ex parte on the 28th of March, 1964 and the 10th of May, 1964, respectively, without notice to the official liquidator, and without their demand notices being served upon him. The official liquidator rejected the claim for these two items on the grounds (1) that as the ....
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....he time he came to know about them the period for filing an appeal had expired, but the same cannot be said for the period after he got notice of the said assessment, i.e., when the appellant filed the sales tax claim before him; thereafter there was no justification for his not taking any steps to challenge the legality, propriety and correctness of these assessment orders as provided under the Sales Tax Act. It was not as if the Sales Tax Act did not provide for such a contingency, for section 9 of that Act, which provides for appeals against assessments, makes a special provision in sub-section (6) thereof, extending the benefit of section 5 of the Indian Limitation Act to such appeals. The official liquidator could have therefore filed ....