SHIV PRASAD SERHAIYA Vs. PASSENGER TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been brought by certiorari action complaining that the order of 17.3.1998, passed by the Passenger Tax Officer, Banda, is ex parte and illegal. By this order, the vehicle has been assessed to passenger tax under the U. P. Motor Gadi (Yatrikar) Adhiniyam, 1962. The Court is not going into the aspects of the merits for the order. Suffice it to say that the assessing authority, aforesaid, records that the vehicle was not in use only for the reason that the engine of the vehicle was damaged. Taking into consideration that the motor vehicle from time to time ceased to be used under the circumstances and repair of the vehicle being one of the circumstances, the assessing authority came to the conclusion that the passenger tax was liable to be paid on the ground that repair of the vehicle may not be a circumstance for which the tax may be waived. This is the context of the order of the assessing authority. The order may be right or may be wrong but the order was not without jurisdiction. At the end of the order, the assessing authority indicated that if the petitioner feels dissatisfied with the order, then he may file an appeal. In accordance with the law as prescribed, under Section 13 of the Act itself. Thus, it was entirely upto the petitioner either to comply with the order or impugn it in appeal. But the petitioner did not do this. What the petitioner did was that he made a complaint against the assessing authority on his order to the Divisional Commissioner, Chitrakoot Dham. In this complaint, he took one additional ground that he did not submit to the order of payment of tax as he happens to be a person belonging to "Anusuchit Jaati". BY writing these words, the petitioner tried to take political advantage in a quasi -judicial proceeding. He ought to have filed an appeal if he was dissatisfied with the order instead of making a complaint. As if the petitioner's conduct in itself was not bad, the Divisional Commissioner did not entertain the complaint.

(2.) THIS Court is of the opinion that there is no provision under the Act that the order of the assessing authority, in the circumstances of the present case, should be subjected to criticism outside the scope of an appeal, which has been so provided. Learned standing counsel, Sri B. N. Mishra, clearly conceded that the order cannot be sustained as any action to criticise the order or certify it as incorrect can only happen in an appeal so prescribed under the Act, the provision for which is Section 13.

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