SADANANDA RAO Vs. CTO TIPTUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is disposed of by this order after notice to respondent and after hearing counsel for respondent and the petitioner.

(2.) The petitioner is the proprietor oi a hotel which provides both boarding and lodging. The hotel is situated at Tiptur. He was an assessee under the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). He was filing his monthly returns and paying taxes under the Act voluntarily in advance under S. 12B(1) of the Act for the year commencing from I April, 1978. In the return filed in Form-3 for September, 1978, the petitioner while disclosing his turnover claimed exemption that he was not liable to pay any tax in view of the decision rendered by the: Supreme Court in Northern India Caterers (India) Ltd. v. Lt. Governor of Delhi, AIR 1978 SC 1591. While submitting the monthly statements for the period from April, 1979 to December, 1979, the petitioner also claimed exemption on his transactions on the basis of the aforesaid Supreme Court decision. The records disclose that some proposition notice was sent by the respondent-C.T.O Tiptur calling upon the petitioner to disclose his turnover in respect of his sales in the Sweet-meat shop attached to the hotel. But nothing appears to have been done in respect of that notice by the respondent C.T.O.

(3.) However, on 7-2-80, Respondent C.T.O. issued two notices to the petitioner calling upon him to pay Rs. 6331-40 Ps. towards tax for the period from September, 1978 to the end of March, 1979. The second notice was for Rs. 90001-10 Ps. towards tax for the period from March, 1979 to December, 1979. The petitioner aggrieved by the above two demand notices has approached this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution interalia contending that the two notices are without jurisdiction and liable to be set aside.