TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2002 (11) TMI 760
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....e proviso 2, section 79 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 is not applicable in appeal in respect of the period prior to March 31, 2000 and for quashing or setting aside the impugned order dated June 17, 2002 and September 18, 2002 passed by respondent No. 2 and the Appellate and Revisional Board. 2.. The petitioner submitted necessary returns for the four quarter ending March 31, 2000 and assessment order was passed on April 2, 2002 by the respondent No. 1 rejecting the books of accounts of the petitioner. Being aggrieved with the order passed by the respondent No. 1 the petitioner filed an appeal before the respondent No. 2. By an order dated June 17, 2002 the respondent No. 2 refused to admit the appeal and rejecting the same on t....
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....ent disputed amount of tax. In support of his contention the learned lawyer for the petitioner relied on the decisions reported in Hoosein Kasam Dada (India) Ltd. v. State of Madhya Pradesh [1953] 4 STC 114 (SC) and Arasu Rubber Corporation Ltd. v. Additional Deputy Commercial Tax Officer [2002] 126 STC 32 (Mad.). 6.. The learned State Representative Mr. Goswami submits that since the amendment was given effect from April 1, 2002 and the appeal was preferred on May 15, 2002, the appellate and revisional authority rightly demanded 20 per cent of the disputed amount of tax in terms of the provisos of section 79 of the amended Act. Hence there is no illegality or irrationality in the impugned orders passed by the appellate authority and the....
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....e assessment proceedings were started, i.e., before the amendment of the Act. The honourable court disposed of the matter in favour of the petitioner and held as follows: "The imposition of the restriction by the amendment of the section could not affect the assessee's right of appeal from a decision in proceedings which commenced prior to such amendment and which right of appeal was free from such restriction under the section as it stood at the time of the commencement of the proceedings. Consequently the assessee's appeal should not have been rejected on the ground that it was not accompanied by satisfactory proof of the payment of the assessed tax." Thus we find that right of appeal from the decision of a Commercial Tax Officer....
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.... a vested right and such a right to enter the superior court accrues to the litigant and exists as on and from the date the 'lis' commences and although it may be actually exercised when the adverse judgment is pronounced such right is to be governed by the law prevailing at the date of the institution of the suit or proceeding and not by the law that prevails at the date of its decision or at the date of the filing of the appeal. (v) This vested right of appeal can be taken away only by a subsequent enactment, if it so provides expressly or by necessary intendment and not otherwise'." 10.. In view of the principles laid down by the honourable Supreme Court we hold that the learned Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Taxes and the lear....