2017 (9) TMI 1048

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....tions, the petitioner challenges the orders of assessment for the assessment years 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015 & 2015-2016 only with regard to the levy of penalty under Section 27(3) of Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 (TNVAT Act in short). 3. So far as the tax component is concerned, out of the four assessment years, the petitioner is required to pay tax to the tune of Rs. 16,215/- for the assessment year 2013-2014 and Rs. 1,35,349/- for the assessment year 2014-2015. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is not contesting the tax liability for the aforesaid two assessment years and the petitioner will remit the same. This statement is taken on record. 4. With regard to the other two asses....

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....ation the statutory provisions and the decisions of the Honourable Supreme Court in Hindustan Steel Limited V. State of Orissa [1970] 25 STC 211 (SC), Uniworth Textiles Limited V. Commissioner of Central Excise, Raipur [2013] 9 SCC 753 & Abanloyd Chiles Offshore Limited V. Commissioner of Customs [2006] 6 SCC 482 and held that an act or omission is 'wilfully' done, if done voluntarily and intentionally and with the specific intent to do something the law forbids or with the specific intent to fail to do something the law requires to be done and that penalty will be imposed if the party had acted deliberately in defiance of law or was guilty of conduct, contumacious or dishonest or acted in conscious disregard of its obligation. Ther....

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....e result of a quasi-criminal proceeding and penalty will not be ordinarily imposed unless the party obliged either acted deliberately in defiance of law or was guilty of conduct, contumacious or dishonest or acted in conscious disregard of its obligation and penalty will not be imposed unless it is lawful to do so. Where penalty should be imposed for failure to perform a statutory obligation is a matter is discretion of the authority to be exercised judicially and on a consideration of all the relevant circumstances. In the instant case, except for observing that there was wilful non-disclosure on the part of the petitioner, and but for the audit, the matter would not have come to light, the assessing authority did not examine as to whether....

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....ing of word wilful in Black's Law Dictionary which states wilful to mean proceeding from a conscious motion of thw will; voluntary; knowingly; deliberate. Intending the result which actually comes to pass... An act or omission is wilfully done, if done voluntarily and intentionally and with the specific intent to do something the law forbids, or with the specific intent to fail to do something the law requires to be done..." 74. ...The word wilful preceding the words mis-statement or suppression of facts clearly spells out that there has to be an intention on the part of the assessee to evade the duty. Thus, the assessing officer was bound to consider whether the conduct of the dealer was wilful." 6. In the case of State of Tam....