NEELAM HOISERY AND UMBRELLA FACTORY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A very short point involved in this petition regarding the question whether the appeal preferred by the petitioner before the Deputy Commissioner, Sales Tax (appeals) Jammu against the order of Assessing Authority Sales Tax, Circle (I) was within the limitation or not. Mr. Arora has submitted that the appeal was required to be accompanied by a certified copy of the assessment order and got delayed, he could not prefer the appeal in time. His contention is that the expression "certified copy" as used in the Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax Rules, 1962 is directly related to the same expression as used in the Evidence Act. Mr, Aroras submission is that as per provisions of Evidence Act, it is necessary to apply for and obtain a certified copy and only after that is done, can an appeal be filed under the Sales Tax Act before an appellate forum. The submission is not well founded. Apart from being fallacious, it is also misconceived. The Sales Tax Act is a complete Code by itself. The words "certified copy" have not been defined either in the Sales Tax Act or in the Rules. Neither the usage of the expression "certified Copy" as occurring in the Evidence Act nor the procedure prescribed for obtaining it can be imported into the Sales Tax Act or the Rules for the purposes of filing an appeal against an assessment order passed by an assessing authority.

(2.) THE intention of the Legislature, while it was using the expression "certified copy" as occurring in the Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax Rules, 1962 was actually meant to convey about such a copy as was authenticated to be a true copy of the assessment order passed by the assessing authority, duly authenticated such a true copy under the seal and signatures of the assessing authority himself. In fact the Act and the Rules provide that a true copy of every assessment order has to be furnished to an assesses and one of the purposes of furnishing such a true copy is to enable the assessee to prefer an appeal against the assessment order. Which ever copy, therefore, is furnished by the assessing authority, whether it is styled as "true copy" or as "certified copy", the same is required to be used as a document for preferring the appeal under the Act to an appellate authority.

(3.) SECTION 76 of the Evidence Act prescribes a detailed procedure for obtaining certified copies of public documents and one of the requirements for obtaining such copies is the payment of the requisite copying fee therefor, In fact a specific endorsement by the Copying Officer is required to be incorported under his seal and signature about the copy being a true copy of the public document under section 76 of the Evidence Act. There is no doubt that an assessment order passed by an assessing authority is also a public document and a person can apply for obtaining its certified copy under section 76 of the Evidence Act. This, however, by itself does not require that only such a certified copy which is issued under section 76 of the Evidence Act can be used for preferring an appeal under the Sales Tax Act against an assessment order passed by the assessing authority. In fact rules have by necessary implications exempted the prospective appellants from the rigour of applying under section 76 of the Evidence Act and obtaining certified copies on payment of prescribed fees. The only requirement of the Sales Tax law is that a copy of the assessment order received free of charge by the assessee under the seal and signatures of the assessing authority can by itself be used for filing the appeal to the appellate forum. Whether under -neath the copy issued by the assessing authority, the words "true copy" or the words "certified copy" are written is immaterial because in either case substantial compliance of law is observed as long as the assessing authority himself endorses the copy to be a true copy of the original order of assessment passed by him.