2010 (4) TMI 847

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....on 377 pieces of drum bucket paints. These goods were transported from Ughna (Surat) to Jodhpur under bilty No. 014951 dated June 17, 1997 issued by M/s. Deshbandhu Transport Company and the goods were consigned to M/s. Goodlass Nerolac Paints Limited. This vehicle was intercepted and checked by the Customs Enforcement Department (for short "the Department"). The competent authority during the course of the enquiry found that the Nerolac paint buckets were transferred by stock transfer but the declaration form ST18A was completely blank. Treating the consignment under the category of incomplete documents in terms of section 78(2) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994 (for short "the Act") and forming an opinion that there was an intention to....

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....Whether mens rea to evade the tax on the part of the dealer is a necessary ingredient for imposition of penalty under section 78(5) of the Act of 1994, for violation of provisions of section 78(2) of the Act of 1994. (ii) Whether the blank declaration form ST18A with the goods in transit by itself attracts the provisions of penalty under section 78(5) of the Act of 1994 for violation of the provisions of section 78(2) of the Act of 1994. (iii) Whether the learned Tax Board has erred in law in holding that prior to March 22, 2002 the penalty under section 78(5) of the Act of 1994 for violation of section 78(2) of the Act of 1994 could not have been imposed against the owner of the goods. (iv) Whether the findings arrived at by the l....

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....o not find any illegality in the impugned order passed by the Tax Board. Consequently, this revision petition, having no merits, is hereby dismissed." As already noticed, the principal challenge raised before us is that the High Court has disposed of the matter by a cryptic order and has not given any reason for rejecting the revision petition preferred by the Department. It is urged that the questions raised in the revision petition were likely to arise in a number of cases and as such it was expected of the High Court to deal with the contentions raised in some elaboration. We have noticed that the High Court has not recorded its own reasoning for dismissing the revision petition in accordance with law. It would have certainly been ....