MANAN AUTOLINK PVT LTD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is an authorized dealer of Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Bajaj Auto Limited. The petitioner is registered under The Gujarat Value Added Tax Act ('the VAT Act' for short) as well as The Central Sales Tax Act ('the CST Act' for short). In the present petition, the petitioner has challenged the action of the respondent authorities in refusing to issue C form to the petitioner on its inter-State purchases of vehicles.

(2.) Brief facts are as under:

(3.) This in nutshell is the controversy. Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner ran into serious financial difficulties due to which the petitioner could not discharge its tax obligations. The petitioner would be in a position to pay up the taxes if installments are granted. Not granting C form declarations to the petitioner would put the petitioner's selling dealers to great hardships since such dealers would not be able to take the benefit of reduced tax of inter-State sale. This cannot be done for the inability of the petitioner to pay his taxes. Granting of C form declarations cannot be stalled on the ground of unpaid dues of a dealer, indirectly taking such measure by way of tax collection and recovery. The VAT Act contains detailed machinery through which the department can make recoveries. In any case, there is no authority in law to link the question of authenticating C form declarations of a dealer to discharge of his tax liabilities.