GLASS PALACE Vs. ASSESSING AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following questions of law have been referred to us under Section 22 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), by the Chairman, Sales Tax Tribunal, Union Territory, Chandigarh :

(2.) THE facts reported are these : One Shri D. R. Gupta was the sole proprietor of Messrs. Glass Palace, Sector 18, Chandigarh (hereinafter referred to as the firm ). Shri Gupta died in a car accident on 10th May, 1969. After his death, the business of the firm was continued by Sarvashri Subhas Chander Gupta, Ajit Gupta (minor) and Mrs. Inder Gupta, the two sons and the wife of the deceased, as partners. The successor partnership firm did not apply for a fresh certificate of registration under the Act or the Central Sales Tax Act and continued enjoying the benefit of the old certificates issued in the name of Shri D. R. Gupta, deceased. Assessment proceedings were initiated against the partnership firm in respect of the period 1968-69 for which Shri D. R. Gupta was alive. Vide its order dated 27th December, 1969, the Assessing Authority fixed the total liability of sales tax at Rs. 4,897. 60.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner-firm submitted that the word "transfer" used in Section 17 of the Act does not include in its ambit and scope transfer by succession in contradistinction with transfer inter vivos. It is further submitted that the matter stands concluded against the revenue by a Full Bench decision of this Court in Jullundur Vegetables Syndicate v. Punjab State [1964] 13 S. T. C. 251 (F. B. ). In particular, reliance is placed on the following passage appearing in the judgment: In fact it may be said generally that the Act makes no specific provision for assessment of the assessable entity which ceases to exist before the assessment proceedings are taken in hand. Under Section 16 if any registered dealer or a dealer, who is required to furnish returns under Sub-section (3) of Section 10,"dies, his legal representative is required to convey the information to the prescribed authority. We asked Mr. Doabia whether, if the dealer had died before the assessment proceedings had commenced, it would still be legal to make an assessment of tax on him for the accounting year during which he was doing business, but the learned Additional Advocate-General expressed his inability to meet the point. There being no provision in the Act similar to Section 24b of the Income-tax Act for enabling assessment to be made in such a case, it must be held that no such assessment can legally be made and on the same principle it would appear to follow that if a firm has been dissolved and is no longer there as a legal entity, it cannot be assessed as such to sales tax.