RAHMAM STORES Vs. COMMISSIONER OF TAXES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Section 32(6) of the Assam Sales Tax Act of 1947 (Act XVII of 1947) directed against an order of the Commissioner of Taxes, Assam, dated 7th February, 1951, by which he held the petition before him as time-barred under Section 32(4) of the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947.

(2.) THE learned Commissioner points out that the appeal against which the petition was made was disposed of by the Assistant Commissioner on 20th September, 1950, and that the petition before him should have been filed with 60 days from the date of the order after excluding the time taken for obtaining copies; the copies were applied for, for the first time on 20th November, 1950, and they were, according to the petitioner, obtained by him on 4th January, 1951, but in spite of the fact that the petitioner was in possession of the copies on 4th January, 1951, he did not file the petition before him in January, 1951; he elected to file the petition on 2nd February, 1951.

(3.) MR . Brahmin has also referred us to another case decided by the Patna High Court reported in Rambhagat Sao Janki Sao v. Province of Bihar, Indian Sales Tax Cases, Volume I, 1938-1950. There again the order in question was an original order, and not an appellate order. We are unable to apply the principle of the decisions of the Madras and the Bihar High Court to appellate orders. The Assam Sales Tax Act expressly provides for a period of limitation from an appellate order as being 60 days which are to be computed from the date of the order, and not from the date of the service of the order.