ASHOK TRACOM PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER COMMERCIAL TAXES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this application under Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987 (it being for all practical purposes an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India) the applicant -company, Ashok Tracom Private Ltd., has challenged (1) the validity of seizure of a consignment of umbrella panels with straps, imported from Taiwan by sea through the Calcutta port, and (2) imposition of a penalty of Rs. 4,86,486, later reduced to Rs. 4,00,000 by the revisional authority.

(2.) Mr. Ashok Gupta, learned Advocate for the applicant, conceded during his arguments that there was no search, but the expression "search and seizure" was used in the application in a loose sense.

(3.) AT the time of hearing, Mr. M.C. Mukhopadhyay, State Representative, appearing for the respondents, submitted that the present application was not maintainable, as another revision ; which could be filed by the applicant from the revisional order dated February 4, 1999 passed by respondent No. 2, had not been availed of. He also justified the imposition of penalty. He, of course, could not show why and how the hearing of the proceeding for penalty took place on January 28, 1999, although the date for showing cause was fixed as February 18, 1999 in the notice relating to the proceeding. There was nothing to show that the applicant or the driver applied for early hearing, as done on many similar occasions, and as done in the hearing of the revision before respondent No. 2 in this very case.