SUPER POWER STEELS Vs. STATE OF H. P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner-Industrial Unit, is registered, with the Directorate of Industries, and, is also registered under the Himachal Pradesh Vat Act, statute whereof, now after an amendment made thereto, is, nomenclatured, as, the Himachal Pradesh Value Added Tax, 2005 (for short "the Act"). The returns of VAT, as, filed before the statutory authority, by the petitioner Unit, in the year 2015, became accepted by the afore. However, in the year 2020, an order of reassessment of VAT, became issued/rendered, upon the petitioner Unit, and, is comprised in Annexure P-9, and, the afore order of reassessment, was, succeeded by a tax demand notice, embodied in Annexure P-10.

(2.) Since alternate to the institution of the extant writ petition, before this Court, the writ petitioner is leveraged, with a right to recourse, a, statutory remedy of constituting, an appeal thereagainst before the Appellate Authority, thereupon prima-facie the existence of the afore alternative statutory remedy, vis-a-vis, the, institution, of the extant writ petition, wherethrough, the writ petitioner, strives for a judicial review being made qua impugned Annexures P-9 and P-10, hence prima-facie renders it to be not maintainable before this Court.

(3.) However, the afore bar or embargo, against the institution, of the extant writ petition before this Court, wherethrough, annulment(s) of the impugned Annexures, is strived for, is not a rigid or an absolute bar, rather it holds certain well expostulated exceptions, inasmuch as the statutory action, as made by the authority concerned, being evidently ridden with gross and flagrant breaches, of, statutory norms; (a) the alternative remedy available under the statute is not effective but a mere formality; (b) statutory authority concerned not acting in accordance with the apposite statutory provisions; (c) where the statutory authority has acted in defiance of the fundamental principles of judicial procedure; (d) where the statutory authority has resorted to invoke provisions which are repealed; (e) where the statutory authority has passed an order in total violation of principles of natural justice. The afore apposite exceptions are borne in a judgment reported in titled as Commissioner of Income Tax and others versus Chhabil Dass Agarwal , 2014 1 SCC 603.