M R F LTD Vs. ASST COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Writ Appeals are against the common judgment rendered by a learned Single Judge in a batch of Original Petitions which is reported as Dunlop v. State of Kerala ( 1991 (2) KLT 852 ).

(2.) The Appellants in all the appeals except in one are the petitioners in the batch of Original Petitions filed challenging the constitutional validity of S.29A(2B) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and a Circular, produced as Ext. P2 in O.P. 8438/1989, issued in implementation of the above sub-section. In some of the Original Petitions, the validity of sub-s.(2A) of S.29A was also under challenge. The learned Judge substantially upheld the validity of the impugned provisions and the circular except to the extent of a small portion of S.29A(2B) of the Act. It was thus found that the only provision to be struck down is the authorisation given in S.29A(2B) to detain the goods and deal with them in the manner provided for as if the transport of goods was an attempt to evade payment of tax in cases where the officer has reason to believe that the dealer has at any time defaulted payment of any tax. To that extent, the portion Of S.29A(2B) was struck down as unconstitutional. In all other respects all the Original Petitions were dismissed by the learned Single Judge. Appeals have been filed by all the petitioners reiterating the contentions raised in the Original Petitions and rejected by the learned Single Judge.

(3.) W.A. 1392/91 is an appeal filed by the State specifically against the judgment in O.P. 3904/90, to the extent it has partially struck down the provisions in S.29A(2B) of the Act.