2009 (3) TMI 921

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.... Added Tax Tribunal, Union Territory, Chandigarh (for brevity, "the Tribunal") in Appeal Nos. 96, 97 and 98 of 2007, in respect of the assessment years 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04, respectively. The dealer-assessee has claimed that the following question of law would arise for determination of this court: "Whether the VAT Tribunal was bound to take into consideration the declarations in form ST XXIIA produced before it, on or before the date of actual hearing of the case before it?" The brief facts of the case relevant for disposal of the controversy raised are that on April 5, 2005 a surprise inspection of the dealer-assessee was carried out by the team of the sales tax officials and certain documents were impounded for verification....

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....eated by the Assessing Authority on the basis of non-submission of declaration in form ST-XXII-A. The dealer-assessee also raised certain other arguments. The Tribunal, however, rejected the aforesaid arguments and dismissed the appeals of the dealer-assessee. The operative part of the order dated November 1, 2007, passed by the Tribunal in Appeal No. 96 of 2007, reads thus: "We have gone through section 20 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 as extended to the Union Territory, Chandigarh and find that the appellant failed to file declaration in form ST-XXII-A as required under the Rules before the Assessing Authority and the Appellate Authority in spite of several opportunities allowed by both these authorities to do so. The Asses....

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....XII-A as Mark "A (Colly)", which runs into 40 pages. Mr. Rajesh Garg, learned counsel for the respondents has, however, argued that when such a huge delay in producing form ST-XXII-A has been caused by the dealer-assessee then it leads to a legal inference that the dealer-assessee has been making excuses without actually possessing the documents. According to the learned counsel the onus of proof should be heavier in such a situation and the documents of unimpeachable credibility have to be produced by the dealer-assessee in order to obtain the benefit. His argument precisely is that longer the delay heavier the onus of proof. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and perusing the paper books with their able assistance we deem....

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....f cash memos or bills prescribed under rule 55A at the time of assessment or when called upon to do so, by notice, by the competent authority under the Act." A conjoint perusal of section 5(1A) of the 1948 Act and rule 29(xi) of the Rules shows that in the hands of a seller no tax would be leviable if such goods were purchased from a registered dealer in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and were chargeable to tax at its first stage of sale. Such tax should have actually been paid at the time of purchase provided declaration in form ST XXIIA has been furnished. The honourable Supreme Court in the case of Hyderabad Asbestos Cement Production Ltd. [1994] 94 STC 410 has dealt with a piece of legislation, namely, Central Sales Tax (Registration....

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.... by the dealer for not producing them earlier. It is necessary to reiterate that receipt of those forms in appeal cannot be a matter of course; it should be allowed only where sufficient cause is established by the dealer for not producing them before the first assessing authority as contemplated by rule 12(7). The requirement of the said sub-rule cannot be excluded from consideration by the appellate court, while judging the sufficiency of the cause shown. It must be remembered that that is the primary obligation of the dealer and his failure to abide by it must be properly explained. Insofar as the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal under the Andhra Pradesh Act is concerned, it is governed by regulation 11(1) referred to hereinabove which....

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....uthority or the first appellate authority could have been produced before the Tribunal or even before the High Court. It is the production of the documents, which is mandatory, but not the stage at which such documents have been produced. However, the dealer-assessee has to furnish sufficient cause for late production of the beneficial documents. Therefore, the question of law is liable to be answered in favour of the dealer-assessee. When the principles of law are applied to the facts of the instant appeals, it becomes evident that the Tribunal has refused to take into consideration the beneficial documents in form ST-XXII-A. Those documents have been ignored on the ground that the dealer-assessee had failed to produce those documents b....