1966 (3) TMI 69

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....ese appeals raise a common question of law, it will be convenient to dispose of them by a single judgment. The facts giving rise to these Government appeals are as follows: In Government Appeal No. 44 of 1964, the Sales Tax Officer, Aligarh, on the 1st June, 1955, assessed the respondent to a sales tax of Rs. 67,822.00 for the assessment year 1956-57, and after deducting Rs. 384.75 P. paid by him issued a demand notice to him for Rs. 67,437.25 P. but the respondent failed to make the payment within the time allowed. In Government Appeal No. 45-of 1964 the Sales Tax Officer, Aligarh, on the 20th September, 1961, assessed the respondent to sales tax of Rs. 48,846.44 P. for the assessment year 1958-59 and issued a demand notice for the said....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....ned Sub-Divisional Magistrate, and he, therefore, ordered their acquittal. On behalf of the State it was contended, (1) that as the assessments in question were not challenged by the respondents, in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Act, it was not open to them to contend that the goods in which they dealt were not liable to sales tax, and (2) that their inability to pay the tax due to their subsequent straitened circumstances could not be regarded as "reasonable cause" within the meaning of section 14(1)(a), so as to absolve them of the consequences of their failure to deposit the assessed tax within the time allowed to them for that purpose. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, I am satisfied that both the co....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....me of the service of the demand notices on them the respondents were in very straitened circumstances and were totally incapable of paying the taxes, they must be held to have made out "reasonable cause" for not paying the assessed tax within the time granted to them. In my opinion, the words "reasonable cause" in section 14(1)(a) cannot be held to mean the inability of the respondents to pay the assessed tax on either of the grounds mentioned above. The liability of the respondents to the payment of the tax arose under the Act, and, if on account of their misunderstanding of the law or any other reason, they failed to realize it from their purchasers, they have themselves to thank for it, and they cannot on either of those grounds shirk th....