ABP PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. V SUNDARAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order arises out of hearing on the question raised by the respondent in his petition as to whether the appeal can be entertained without half of the amount awarded by the Forum below or Rs. 25,000/ - whichever is less being deposited by the appellant in view of the provisions of Section 15, Proviso, of the C.P. Act as amended in 2002.

(2.) MR . Kumeresh Chatterjee, learned Advocate for the appellant has relied upon two Supreme Court judgments to argue that this amended provision affecting the financial capacity or position of the appellant will have effect on his substantive right and hence cannot have restrospective application. These two rulings are as follows:

(3.) IN the former, in an almost indentical situation the Hon ble Supreme Court has observed that it is clear from the language used in the proviso to Section 22(1) of the Central Provinces and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947 as it stood prior to the amendment that an aggrieved assessee had only to pay such amount of tax as he might admit to be due from him, whereas under the proviso to Section 22(1) as amended by the Amending Act of 1949 the appeal has to be accompained by satisfactory proof of payment of the tax in respect of which the appeal had been preferred. Their Lordships had then held that the pre -existing right of appeal is not destroyed by the amendment, if the amendment is not made retrospective by express words or necessary intendment and the fact that the pre -existing right of appeal continues to exist must, in its turn, necessarily imply that the old law which created that right of appeal must also exist to support the continuation of that right and as the old law continues to exist for the purpose of supporting the pre -existing right of appeal, that old law must govern the exercise and enforcement of that right of apeal and there can then be no question of the amended provision preventing the exercise of that right. It has been concluded by Their Lordships that the new proviso is wholly inapplicable in such a situation and the jurisdiction of the authority has to be exercised under the old law which so continues to exist.