SAINUDHEEN Vs. DY TAHSILDAR R R

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner challenged Exts. P1 and P3. Ext. P1 is a notice issued by the Enquiry Officer appointed by the District Collector to conduct an enquiry, against the petitioner on the allegation that, in the matter of assessment of a building tax in respect of certain buildings there was under assessment of tax and thus causing loss to the Government. Ex. P3 is a notice issued under the provisions of the Revenue Recovery Act for realising the loss allegedly caused on account of the underassessment of tax.

(2.) The facts of the case are that, the petitioner was working as a Tahsildar and on attaining the age of superannuation he retired from service on 31-3-1990. Long after his retirement on 26-3-1992, the Accountant General in the local audit report pointed out short assessment of tax under the Building Tax Act. Following the report of the Accountant General, an enquiry officer was appointed for conducting a formal enquiry against the petitioner in terms of the provisions contained in the KCS (CC & A) Rules 1960, by Ext. P1. The petitioner submitted his reply as per Ext.P2 and it is stated that thereafter he did not hear anything more from the Enquiry Officer. The records show that sometime in 1999, the Enquiry Officer submitted a report and apparently based on the report so submitted, the first respondent issued Ext. P3 revenue recovery notice for realising an amount of Rs. 63,560/- from the petitioner. It is in his background this writ petition has been filed challenging the recovery proceedings.

(3.) Affidavits have been filed by the respondents. In the first counter affidavit, though it was contended that notice was issued to the petitioner under the Kerala Public Accountants Act before recovery proceedings were issued, realizing that the same was a factual mistake, an additional affidavit has been filed confessing the mistake. According to them, it is based on the audit objection raised by the Accountant General that the proceedings were initiated and the reason for the whole proceedings is short assessment of tax which resulted in loss to the Government.