TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1958 (2) TMI 35
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....e to produce his document was not obeyed. An ex parte order of assessment was passed against him on 25th November, 1952, assessing him Rs. 771-2-0 as sales tax for the above period. A penalty of Rs. 50 was also imposed on him under section 11(5) of the Act. The order of the Sales Tax Officer is Annexure 'A'. 3.. The assessee deposited a sum of Rs. 200 on 10th January, 1953, and appealed to the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax. The appeal was dismissed on 30th September, 1954 (Annexure 'B'). A second appeal to the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax was dismissed on 20th July, 1955, on the short ground that the assessee had not deposited the balance of the tax before filing the appeal. The present petition asks for writs of certiorari to quash the orders passed by the department and also for quashing the proceedings pending before the Tahsildar for recovery of the tax. It was filed on 11th October, 1956. 4.. The petitioner by this petition contends that the assessment made on him was barred by time for various reasons. According to him, the notice in Form XII sent to him was barred, being sent more than 12 months after the expiry of the period of assessment and also after more th....
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....tive effect from 1st June, 1947: Vide section 24 of the Amending Act. 8.. The question that has arisen for our consideration and which has arisen in the other two cases was the meaning of the expression "within three calendar years". In the case reported in the Sales Tax Cases the learned Judges who formed the Division Bench held that "three calendar years " denoted 36 calendar months. In the other Division Bench case it was held that calendar year meant a year according to the Gregorian calendar, commencing on the 1st of January of the year immediately succeeding the year in which the assessment period expired. We have to decide which of these two meanings is correct. 9.. After the calendar was revised in England, Acts were passed to show when the calendar year commenced and it was then decided that the calendar year would commence from the 1st of January and expire on the 31st December. There is no definition of the expression "calendar year" either in the General Clauses Act or in the Act with which we are concerned. In the General Clauses Act the term "year" has been defined as denoting a period of a year according to the Gregorian calendar. It was, therefore, contended b....
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....ned counsel for the petitioner or by the Division Bench in Firm Sheonarayan Matadin's case[1956] 7 S.T.C. 623. 12.. Having considered all the material that was placed before us, including dictionaries, we are of the opinion that "three calendar years" must be taken to mean three calendar years calculated from the 1st of January immediately succeeding the calendar year in which the assessment period expired. If this is taken into account, then the notice which was served upon the petitioner in Form No. XII on 29th October, 1952, was within three "calendar years" from the date of the expiry of the assessment order. It is also to be noticed that in the present case the assessment was being made for a part of a year, viz., for a period from 29th January, 1949, to 18th August, 1949. In the petition we found no reference to the date on which the assessment year expired. In view of what we have said above we are of the opinion that the decision of the Division Bench, with all due respect, in Firm Sheonarayan Matadin's case(2), cannot be accepted, and we affirm the decision of the other Division Bench case in Ramdhan Laxminarayan Agarwal v. The Assistant Sales Tax Officer, AkolaM.P. No.....
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....ngs us to the question whether the penalty provisions could be applied to the petitioner. The penalty has to be justified with reference to sub-section (5) of section 11 of the Sales Tax Act, as amended by Act XX of 1953 under which the assessment has been made. The proviso to section 24 of the Act XX of 1953, which makes the new sub-section retrospective with effect from 1st June, 1947, is as below: "Provided that no person shall be liable to pay any penalty or to a prosecution under the said Act for any act done or omitted to be done before the commencement of this Act for which no penalty could be levied or no prosecution could be lodged prior to the commencement of this Act." As no penalty could be imposed before the commencement of Act XX of 1953 because the notice was issued after the period of limitation then prescribed, the order imposing it cannot be maintained. 16.. The result is that the petition is partly allowed. The order of assessment of sales tax is maintained, and that of penalty is quashed. In the circumstances of the case, there shall be no order as to costs. The security deposit shall be refunded to the petitioner. BHUTT, J.-The order proposed to be delivered....