RAJANI EXTRACTIONS Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY filing this petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution, petitioner is praying for quashment of annexure P13, eligibility certificate dated November 20, 1987, whereby certain modification has been effected in petitioner's earlier eligibility certificate, without giving any opportunity of hearing to it and with retrospective effect.

(2.) AT the outset, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted, that no amendment in the eligibility certificate with retrospective effect could be made in view of the judgment of this Court, passed in W. P. No. 990 of 1996, decided on December 15, 1997 (Kitchen Aid, Indore v. State of M. P. reported in [1998] 110 STC 109 ). The said judgment is based on a ratio of the judgment reported in [1996] 102 STC 483 (MP) (K. P. Enterprises v. Divisional Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Raipur ).

(3.) BRIEF facts are mentioned hereinbelow : Petitioner is duly registered under the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 as a registered dealer. Petitioner-firm was constituted mainly to carry on the business of solvent extraction of oil seeds and oil cakes. Petitioner applied to the respondents for grant of an eligibility certificate. After scrutiny of the petitioner's case, eligibility certificate was granted in favour of the petitioner on July 16, 1987 (annexure P11), granting the said eligibility certificate to the petitioner with effect from March 1, 1985 to February 28, 1987, on raw materials specified in the said certificate. Vide the impugned order, certain modification has been effected in the earlier eligibility certificate, withdrawing the benefits to the petitioner with reference to major oil seeds. Feeling aggrieved, petitioner has filed this petition, challenging the said partial withdrawal of the exemption granted to it.