PRITAM SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of C.Ws. Nos. 2417, 2418 and 2420 of 1973.

(2.) In Gurhachan Singh V. The Government of Punjab and others, 1973 PunLJ 446, I had an occasion to consider the question of constitutional validity of Sections 63(b) and (c) of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act (25 of 1961) (hereinafter called the Punjab Act). I held that Section 63(b) and (c) of the Punjab Act was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The same point is involved in all these three cases.

(3.) The learned counsel for the State, Shri R.K. Chhibber, has argued that the view taken by me in Gurbachan Singh's case is not correct. In support of his submission, he has relied upon State of Kerala and others V. C.M. Francis and Co. and others, 1961 AIR(SC) 617 That was a case under the Travancore-Cochin General Sales Tax Act. Under Section 13 of the said Act a warrant for recovery of arrears of sales-tax could be issued and under Section 19 of the same Act a defaulter could be prosecuted in a Criminal Court. The Supreme Court held that availability of these two remedies to the Department did not violate any of the fundamental rights of the asessee. This case was followed in Narayani Amma Karthiyayani Amma and another V. The State of Kerala and others, 1972 AIR(Ker) 93 in which a similar Section of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act was held to be valid. Similar view was taken in Indu Bhushan Gupta V. State of U.P. and others, 1972 AIR(All) 557 regarding the validity of a similar provisions in the U.P. Co-operative Societies Act.