TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2001 (3) TMI 1013
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... and the demand notice annexure P8 issued by the said respondent for payment of Rs. 98,47,230 as dues of tax for the assessment year 1997-98. It has also prayed for initiation of proceedings against respondent No. 4 under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. 2.. A perusal of the record shows that the petitioner is engaged in the business of manufacture of country liquor. It is registered as a dealer under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for short, "the Act"). By an order dated October 31, 2000, respondent No. 3 framed the assessment for the year 1997-98 and created a demand of Rs. 98,50,561 by holding that glass bottles used as packing material/ containers for country liquor constitute as an independent commodity which is liable to ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....id down by this Court in Punjab Breweries Limited v. State of Punjab [1999] 112 STC 314 and is vitiated due to mala fides of respondent No. 4. He further argued that the decision of the Karnataka High Court in State of Karnataka v. Shaw Wallace and Co. Ltd. [1981] 48 STC 169 does not have any bearing on the issue of levy of tax of bottles at a higher rate under the Act and respondent No. 4 has committed a serious illegality by creating demand against the petitioner by relying on the said decision. 5.. At the hearing, we asked the learned counsel as to why the petitioner may not be relegated to the alternative remedy of appeal available under section 20 of the Act. Shri Jain responded to this query by arguing that article 226 does not con....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....d. v. Governor-General in Council [1947] 15 ITR 332 (PC); AIR 1947 PC 78, the rule of alternative remedy was invoked in a case arising out of a suit brought for a declaration that the assessment made by the Income-tax Officer was nullity. While declining to entertain the claim, Lord Uthwatt, J., declared the law in the following words: "...........In the provenance of tax where the Act provided for a complete machinery which enabled an assessee effectively to raise in the courts the question of validity of an assessment denied an alternative jurisdiction to the High Court to interfere." 8.. The proposition laid down in the aforementioned decision was approved by a three Judges Bench in Titaghur Paper Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Orissa ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....e was stated with great clarity by Willes, J., in Wolverhampton New Water Works Co. v. Hawkesford (1859) 6 CB (NS) 336 at. 356 in the following passage: 'There are three classes of cases in which a liability may be established founded upon statute. ................ But there is a third class, viz., where a liability not existing at common law is created by a statute which at the same time gives a special and particular remedy for enforcing it ....................... The remedy provided by the statute must be followed, and it is not competent to the party to pursue the course applicable to cases of the second class. The form given by the statute must be adopted and adhered to.' The rule laid down in this passage was approved by....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....o inextricably mixed up, and the prevention of public injury and the vindication of public justice require it that recourse may be had to article 226 of the Constitution. But then the court must have good and sufficient reason to by-pass the alternative remedy provided by statute. Surely matters involving the revenue where statutory remedies are available are not such matters...." 10.. In State of Goa v. Leukoplast (India) Ltd. [1997] 105 STC 318; (1997) 3 JT 322, the Supreme Court reversed the order passed by the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court vide which it had quashed the order of assessment passed under the Central Sales Tax Act. One of the grounds on which the Supreme Court upset the order of the High Court was petitioner&....