HOTEL VIKRAM Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 24.10.2000 after noticing that court fee of Rs. 100/ - only was paid on the memorandum of TRC and in the light of the amendment Act 25 of 1988 which was brought into force with effect from 6.9.1988, this Court finally granted two weeks time to pay the deficit court fee of Rs. 400/ -. The Court also directed that in the event of default in paying the deficit court fee the TRC should stand dismissed without any further order from the court for non -prosecution. Admittedly the petitioner did not pay the deficit court fee of Rs. 400/ - within the stipulated time. Therefore, by force of the order made by this Court on 24.10.2000, the TRC stood dismissed on the date when two weeks time expired.

(2.) HOWEVER , Sri A.V.S. Ramakrishniah, the learned counsel for the petitioner would contend that the TRC relates to the assessment year 1982 -63 and, therefore, the fee payable on the memorandum of TRC during the assessment year 1982 -83 should alone be insisted by the Registry and not the rate of fee prevailing on the date of presentation of the TRC in the year 1992 before which amendment Act 25 of 1988 came into force with effect from 7.9.1988. This contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner has to be noticed only to be rejected in limine. We say this because Sub -section (2) of Section 22 of the APGST Act, 1957 (the Act, for short) provides that the petition (TRC) shall be in the prescribed form, shall be verified in the prescribed manner and shall, where it is preferred by the dealer, be accompanied by a fee of Rs. 500/ -. It is trite to state that the presentation of a petition (TRC) has locus and time. The locus is the space at which the TRC was presented before this Court. There is no controversy that the TRC was presented in the year 1992 before the Registry. The presentation of the TRC also involved the time factor. Therefore, keeping in mind the locus of the presentation of the TRC and the time at which the presentation took place and keeping in mind the unambiguous and clear intendment of sub -section (2) of Section 22 of the Act, it should be held that the presentation of the TRC should have been accompanied by a court fee of Rs. 500/ -.