BHAIYA LAL SHARMA Vs. SALES TAX OFFICER HARDOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE question is whether a person who carries on the business of sale of country liquor under an annual licence can be said to have commenced business during the course of an assessment year.

(2.) THE petitioners are dealers registered under the U.P. Sales Tax Act. They do the business of selling country liquor under a licence granted to them by the excise authorities. The licence runs for a year commencing from 1st April and ending on the following 31st March. The petitioners took the requisite licence commencing from the 1st April, 1969, and continuing up to the 31st March, 1970. On the 17th June, 1969, the Sales Tax Officer, Hardoi, passed an ex parte provisional assessment order for the month of April, 1969. He also passed a similar order for the months of May and June, 1969, on the 20th of August, 1969. The petitioners in due course submitted their return for the first quarter of the assessment year 1969-70 on the 11th July, 1969. In it they denied their liability to pay sales tax on the ground that country liquor was not liable to sales tax. In the present writ petition the monthly provisional assessment orders have been challenged on the ground that they are without jurisdiction.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner urged that section 18(2) applies to a dealer who commences business during the course of an assessment year. The expression "during" would, in law, exclude the point of time when the assessment year begins; and so, if a dealer commences business from the very first moment of the beginning of the assessment year, he cannot be said to have commenced the business "during" the course of that year. In S.T.R. No. 1634 of 1956 decided on the 17th August, 1963, a Bench of this court did not accept a similar contention. It was observed :