SEWA SINGH SADHU SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Sales Tax Tribunal, Haryana (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal), has referred the following two questions of law to us for our opinion: (i) Whether, on the facts, an application for registration had to be made for the year 1964-65 when the earlier application for 1963-64 had not been decided ? (ii) Whether assessment was maintainable under Section 11 (6) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act in view of the pendency of the application ?

(2.) THE Assessing Authority, Gurgaon, vide its order dated 30th June, 1970, assessed the applicant-firm to sales tax amounting to Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 3,225 for the years 1963-64 and 1964-65 respectively, and also imposed a penalty of Rs. 500 in respect of each year under Section 11 (6) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). The first appeal filed by the assessee before the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Appeals), Rohtak, was partly allowed and penalty of Rs. 500 was waived. The second appeal filed by the assessee was accepted by the Tribunal vide order dated 7th April, 1971. Thereafter, the Excise and Taxation Commissioner applied for review of the order dated 7th April, 1971, re: assessment year 1964-65 of the Tribunal. The Tribunal vide its order dated 12th October, 1973, allowed the review application and set aside the order of the Tribunal dated 7th April, 1971. On the application filed under Section 42 (1) of the Act by the assessee, the Tribunal referred the aforementioned two questions of law to us for our opinion.

(3.) ON behalf of the assessee, it has been argued that the assessee did apply for registration certificate for the assessment year 1963-64 and its application remained pending for this year as well as for the year 1965-66 and that in these circumstances best judgment assessment could not have been framed under Section 11 (6) of the Act.