PETROL TAXATION OFFICER Vs. KR DIWARKAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE six appeals entitled above under the Letters Patent are directed against the judgment and order of Bhat J sitting singly who has accepted writ petition 67 of 1970 and writ petitions 72 to 76 of 1970 filed before him.

(2.) THE respondents in the appeals were various retail dealers in the sale of motor spirit and had petrol pumps at various places in the province of Jammu, State of jammu and Kashmir. The dealers were asked by the Petrol Taxation Department to pay arrears of taxes for several years and after taking their objections that they had paid the amounts of tax the department over -ruled their objection and imposed penalty on them and directed them to pay the amounts. On their failure to pay the amounts, the appellant No. 1 moved the Tehsildar, Recoveries, for recovery of the amount of tax due from various respondents as arrears of land revenue. Since common questions of law and fact were involved in all the writ petitions, the learned judge disposed of the writ petitions by one common judgment and by his order dated 10 -9 -71 he accepted all the writ petitions and quashed the orders of recovery of the amounts as land revenue. Before, however, coming to the merits of the cases, it will be necessary to give a resume of the facts of the writ petitions before the learned single Judge so as to understand the scope and ambit of these appeal?. x

(3.) APPEAL No. 15 of 1971 arises out of writ petition 72 of 1970 Kapoor Singh & another V. Petrol Taxation Officer and others. Appeal No. 9 of 71 arises out of writ petition No. 73 of 1970 Ch. Mukha Singh & another V. Petrol Taxation Officer & ors. Appeal No. 7 of 1971 arises out of writ petition No. 74 of 70 Gyeni Lal Singh and others. V._ Petrol Taxation Officer and others. Appeal No. 8 of "71 arises from writ petition 75 of 70 -Sharam Singh and others V Petrol Taxation Officer and others. Appeal No.6 of 70 arises from writ petition 76 of 71 -Kr. Diwakar Singh and others Vs. Petrol Taxation Officer and others. Appeal No. 13 of 71 arises from writ petition No. 67 of 70 -Messrs Chopra Kilns Vs. The Assessing Authority S. T. For the sake of convenience the Assessing authority, Sales Tax, and the Tehsildar, Recoveries, will be referred to as appellants 1 and 2 and the respondents in these appeals who were the petitioners in the various writ petitions will be referred to as petitioners