TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1981 (8) TMI 207
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....fter referred to as the Act), the undertakings of jute companies whose names appear in the First Schedule to the Act were nationalised. It appears that by virtue of section 3 of the said Act those undertakings stood vested in the Central Government on the appointed day. By virtue of section 6 of the Act the undertaking which vested in the Central Government appear to have, by operation of law, vested in the petitionerCorporation. Thereafter the petitioner made an application for registration under the provisions of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 (hereinafter referred to as the Sales Tax Act). The impugned order was passed on the petitioner's application for new registration. The material portion of the impugned order is in t....
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....ed accordingly." As pointed out by Mr. Bose and as is well-known, section 17 of the Sales Tax Act and its counterpart in the various statute laws on the subject was enacted to prevent the evasion of sales tax by a dealer by transferring his business. In other words section 17 makes it possible for the authorities in the event of a transfer of the business to make the transferee liable for all the unrealised sales tax that may be recovered from a transferor. In this background, it may be useful to analyse the provisions of the Act on this question. Section 5(1) of the Act provides as follows: "Every liability other than the liability specified in sub-section (2), of a jute company in respect of any period prior to the appointed day,....
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.... is headed "Order of priorities" and is divided into Part I and Part II. Category IV in Part II contains as the first item revenue and taxes. It is clear therefore from section 17 of the Act read with the Second Schedule that any claim for any tax or revenue can be made before the Commissioner of Payments in the manner laid down in section 17 of the Act. This, in my view, clearly postulates, that any claims in respect of any taxes from the fiscal authorities which had accrued prior to the appointed day and for which the liability is of the jute company under section 5 of the Act can be made in the manner laid down in section 17 of the Act read with the Second Schedule. This scheme again is quite clearly contrary to the scheme of liability u....
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....o the conclusion that nationalisation under the provisions of the last mentioned Act does not amount to a transfer within the meaning of section 17 of the Sales Tax Act. Similarly in the case of Western Coal Fields Ltd. v. Sales Tax Officer, Sambalpur III Circle, reported in [1977] 40 STC 225, a Division Bench of the Orissa High Court appears to have come to a similar conclusion. Mr. S.N. Dutta sought to distinguish the above cases on the ground that by virtue of the Act the undertakings of the jute company had been nationalised whereas under the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973, the entire company has been nationalised. Mr. Soumen Bose appearing for the petitioner, however, contends that both under the Coal Mines (Nationalisation)....