DAUDAYAL GOEL Vs. DEPUTY COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A short question is involved in the above -mentioned writ petitions. The Petitioners have challenged the adoption of coercive process by the recovery authorities against them. All the Petitioners were liable to pay sales tax to the State of U.P. They, however, did not pay the same and the State ultimately had to take recourse to coercive process against them under which demand notice was first sent and. thereafter, warrant of arrest was issued against them, as they within the period of the demand notice did not pay the sales tax amount. The Petitioners, apprehending their arrest, instituted the said writ petitions and obtained stay orders whereby the recovery proceedings against them were stayed and it was particularly ordered that they shall not be arrested.

(2.) ON behalf of the Respondents, it had been contended that there was no justification at all for stay of the arrest of the Petitioners, who admittedly were liable to pay the amount of sales tax which had been found due after assessment for different years and that no enquiry at all was contemplated by law before arresting the defaulters after a decision was taken to recover the amount of sales tax as arrears of land revenue.

(3.) THE sheet -anchor of the Petitioners was Hon'ble Supreme Court's decision reported in : (1983) 4 SCC 276, Ram Narain Agarwal v. State oj U.P. and Ors. After going through the same, we found that no enquiry was contemplated by law before the actual arrest of the defaulters from whom the amount was to be recovered as arrears of land revenue. The only requirement was the default on their part in paying the amount after receiving the demand notice, which had been committed by them in these cases. The contention of the learned Counsel for the Petitioners that the Petitioners could not be arrested unless an enquiry first was held as to whether they were possessed of sufficient means to pay the amount which was being recovered from them as arrears of land revenue and If It was found that they were not possessed of sufficient means, they could not be legally and validly arrested by the recovery authorities was totally devoid of merits.