Civil Appeal No. 1410 of 2003. Case: Supreme Paper Mills Ltd. Vs Asst. Commnr. Commercial Taxes Calcutta and Ors.. Supreme Court (India)
| Case Number | Civil Appeal No. 1410 of 2003 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Rana Mukherjee, M. Indrani and Abhijit Sengupta, Advs. and For Respondents: M. Chandrasekharan, Sr. Adv., Tara Chandra Sharma, Neelam Sharma and Rupesh Kumar, Advs. |
| Judges | D.K. Jain, Mukundakam Sharma and R.M. Lodha, JJ. |
| Issue | Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 - Sections 10, 11(1), 11E, 11E(1), 11E(2), 11(2), 12(5) and 12(8); West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987 - Section 8; Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 |
| Citation | 2010 (2) SCALE 345 |
| Judgement Date | March 25, 2010 |
| Court | Supreme Court (India) |
Judgment:
Mukundakam Sharma, J.
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The issue that falls for consideration in the present appeal is whether the show cause notice issued by the respondent is illegal and defective as the same did not provide for a time period of 15 days as prescribed in the statute and also because it did not disclose materials leading to the satisfaction of the concerned authorities justifying the issuance of such a show cause notice.
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The appellant Company was carrying on the business of manufacturing various types of papers at its paper mill situated at Village Raninagar Chakdah, District Nadia, Kolkata. In the course of its carrying on business it filed necessary returns as required under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 (for short the "1941 Act") and also paid the taxes on the basis of the said return. The Revenue also completed the assessment proceeding which was deemed to have been made under Section 11E(1) of the 1941 Act by operation of law. Subsequently, however, the appellant received a show cause notice from the Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Corporate Division whereby the appellant was directed to show cause why deemed assessment case for the period mentioned in the said impugned notices would not be re-opened. Since the validity of the aforesaid notices has been challenged by the appellant herein, we would extract the relevant contents of one of the notices which reads as follows:
Whereas I am satisfied that the returns filed by you which formed the basis of the above mentioned deemed assessment case exhibit incorrect statement of your turnover/incorrect particulars of sales whereas it appears to me that the assessment is required to be re-opened, you are hereby directed to show cause on 29.6.99 at 11.00 a.m. why the assessment will not be re-opened.
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The other notices which are also impugned herein have similar contents. In terms of the aforesaid notices, the appellants were directed to submit their reply to the show cause notice on 29.6.1999.
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Being aggrieved by the issuance of the aforesaid notices, the appellant filed an application under Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987 challenging the validity of the aforesaid notices issued by the respondent proposing to re-open the deemed assessment for the four periods. The West Bengal Taxation Tribunal heard all the four cases analogously and by judgment dated 27.7.2001, dismissed the same.
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Being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the aforesaid judgment and order passed by the Tribunal, the appellant preferred a Writ Petition in the High Court of Calcutta which was entertained. However, the High Court of Calcutta dismissed the writ petition by the impugned judgment and order dated 19.7.2002 which is under challenge in this appeal.
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Counsel appearing for the appellant submitted before us that the aforesaid show cause notice is illegal and without jurisdiction as a time period of 15 days which is required to be given...
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