NATIONAL MOTORS Vs. JOINT EXCISE AND TAXATION COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two writ petitions (Civil Writs No. 2399 of 1964 and No. 2396 of 1964) raise identical questions and are, therefore, being disposed of by one order. As a matter of fact arguments have been addressed only in Civil Writ No. 2399 of 1964, which was admitted on 10th of November, 1964, to a Division Bench, and Civil Writ No. 2396 of 1964, also admitted on the same day, was ordered to be heard along with the former.

(2.) "national Motors", which is the petitioner in both these cases, is, according to the writ petitions, a partnership concern with its head-office at Mukat House, The Mall, Amritsar, having two branches, one at Jullundur and the other at Patiala. This firm was registered as a "dealer" under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (Punjab Act No. 46 of 1948), hereinafter to be referred to as the Act. The liability of this firm to pay tax started with effect from 5th August, 1959. The returns required to be filed by this firm were quarterly returns and for the year 1959-60, three quarterly returns were filed. A sum of Rs. 1,18,283-20p. was also paid in accordance with those returns. The assessment, according to the averments in the writ petitions, was finalised on 10th April, 1962, by the Assessing Authority, Amritsar, determining a sum of Rs. 1,38,287-84p. to be the tax. The balance was also duly paid off.

(3.) FOR the year 1961-62, no returns were filed, with the result that a notice in Form S. T. XIV was issued on 3rd September, 1963, requiring the petitioner to explain the failure to file the quarterly returns. On 25th October, 1963, four quarterly returns ending respectively on 30th June, 1961, 30th September, 1961, 31st December, 1961, and 31st March, 1962, were filed and by an order dated nth November, 1963, the Assessing Authority assessed the petitioner to a sales tax amounting to Rs. 1,14,055-40p. and a penalty of Rs. 5,000 under Section 10 (6) of the Act for not filing the returns in time and also for not paying the tax in accordance with law at the time due. This amount, according to the writ petition, was paid. Against the order imposing the penalty of Rs. 5,000, however, the petitioner went up in revision under Section 21 (1) of the Act on 28th December, 1963, before the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, at Patiala. In 1960, however, the question of the formation of the firm Messrs National Motors and the manner in which the agency for the sale of Fiat cars and Fargo trucks was obtained by them figured prominently in the memorandum submitted by Shri Prabodh Chandra to the Congress High Command and those allegations were repeated in the charges which formed the subject of enquiry by Shri S. R. Das in terms of the notification issued by the Home Ministry, Government of India, on 1st November, 1963. The report relating to Messrs National Motors is contained in Chapter 11 of the Report of the Das Commission, which was published on nth June, 1964. The findings, as reproduced in the writ petition, are as under-That S. Surinder Singh Kairon has taken the fullest advantage of his position as the son of the Chief Minister and has freely exploited the influence and power of his father in securing the agency of the Premier Automobiles Limited for National Motors and in developing its business and increasing its sales in diverse ways and in delaying the filing of the sales tax return or making of the voluntary deposits without any effective step being taken against him and in getting away with a paltry penalty wholly inadequate to his lapses.