JOSCO FASHION JEWELLERS Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is a dealer in gold ornaments and jewellery registered under the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (for short, 'KVAT Act') and CST. The Petitioner had been opting for payment of tax at compounded rates under Sec. 8(f) of the KVAT Act since the year 2006. Exts.P1 and P2 are the Orders dtd. 18/2/2011 and 13/12/2011 allowing the Applications of the Petitioner for compounding and determining tax for the Assessment Years 2010-11 and 2011-12. Petitioner is challenging Exts.P4 and P5 Notices issued by the Respondent No.3 proposing to cancel Exts.P1 and P2 permissions to pay tax at compounding rate on the ground that the Intelligence Officer (IB), Thiruvananthapuram, has found that the Petitioner did not declare certain purchases in the Returns in Form 10DA filed during the relevant Assessment Years in which the compounding were opted. The Respondent No.3 issued Exts.P4 and P5 Notices invoking Sec. 8(f)(iv) and/or Sec. 25(1) of the KVAT Act.

(2.) The Special Government Pleader (Taxes) appearing for the Respondents filed a Memo dtd. 19/6/2018 producing the Counter Affidavit filed by the State in W.P.(C) No.11335/2018 stating that the issues involved in this Writ Petition and in W.P.(C) No.11335/2018 are identical and praying to adopt the said Counter Affidavit in the present case. It appears that Respondents adopted the Counter Affidavit filed by the State in W.P.(C) No.11335/2018, since in both W.P.(C) No.11335/2018 and this Writ Petition, there is a challenge against the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

(3.) I heard the learned Senior Counsel for the Petitioner, Sri. A. Kumar, instructed by Adv. Smt. G. Mini, and the learned Special Government Pleader (Taxes), Sri. Mohammed Rafiq.