NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the Patna High Court in a reference under Section 21B (1) of the Bihar Taxation on Passengers and Goods (Carried by Public Service Motor Vehicles) Act, 1961 (briefly the Act) as amended.

(2.) The facts as appearing from the statement of case annexing the various orders of the authorities may briefly be stated:

(3.) The appellant, M/s. National Transport Company, is a transport undertaking without its transport. The appellant (hereinafter to be described as the assessee) was the sole transporter by the Associated Cement Company at Sindri (briefly the company) from Sindri to different stockists at various places in Bihar and West Bengal. In order to have some sort of uniformity in price at different places the manufacturing company used to fix the transport charges according to a schedule. The assessee's contract with the manufacturing company commenced some time on October 12, 1963. Since the assessee did not have its own fleet of trucks covered by public carrier permits belonging to various persons at different times for transporting the cement. The assessee was not registered under Section 4 of the Act. On September 3, 1966, there was a surprise inspection of the office of the assessee and certain books of accounts containing accounts of transport charges realised by the assessee for transporting of cement from the Sindri factory to the stockists in Bihar and West Bengal were seized. The assessee also produced some books of accounts during the hearing before the Officer. The assessee maintained his accounts ledger-wise in respect of the transport charges realised and realisable from different stockists of Bihar and West Bengal for transport of cement by it from the Sindri factory to their godowns. There were two ledgers. One was party-wise showing charges realised or realisable from the stockists and the other truck wise showing hire charges paid to various trucks. The assessee also produced a list of trucks showing the names of the truck owners with their respective places of residence. Out of thirty six trucks, twenty four were registered in Bihar and twelve in West Bengal. Agreements with the truck owners were also produced by the assessee. The bills from the petrol supplying company which were paid by the assessee were also filed showing the total amount and the truck-wise amount. The ledger party-wise showed rates charged from the stockists. The ledger truck-wise showed hire charges and also deductions on account of petrol, diesel and other lubricants and also for loss in the way as per agreement.