Shyamal Ghosh vs Sales Tax Officer
2022 Latest Caselaw 4156 Cal

Form No. J(2)

              IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                    Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
                            Appellate Side

Present:
The Hon'ble Justice T.S.Sivagnanam
              And
The Hon'ble Justice Bivas Pattanayak

                          M.A.T. 820 of 2022
                                   with
                           IA no. CAN 1 of 2022

                              Shyamal Ghosh
                                    Vs.
                        Sales Tax Officer, Sales Tax,
                           Raiganj Charge & Ors.

For the Appellant                Mr. Himangshu Kr. Ray

For the State                    Mr. Anirban. Ray, Ld. GP,
                                 Mr. T. M. Siddiqui, Ld. AGP,
                                 Mr. D. Ghosh,
                                 Mr. S. Mukherjee,


For the respondent no.6          Mr. Dipanjan Datta,

Heard on            : 12.07.2022.

Judgment on         : 12.07.2022.


T.S.Sivagnanam, J.

By consent of the parties the appeal and the application are taken up

for hearing together.

This intra-court appeal by the writ petitioner is directed against an

order dated 19.05.2022 passed in WPA 8439 of 2022. The appellant filed a

said writ petition challenging the proceedings initiated by the Assessing

Officer, namely, the first respondent, by issuing notice under Section 56 of the

West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (in short "WBVAT Act") dated

04.10.2016, the assessment order dated 21.02.2017 and the garnishee

proceedings initiated by the Department. The Learned Single Bench by the

impugned order has not rejected the writ petition but had directed the

respondents to file their affidavits-in-opposition.

The appellant is aggrieved primarily on the ground that no interim

protection was granted by the Learned Single Bench while directing the

affidavits-in-opposition to be filed. This is how the appellant is before us by

way of this intra-court appeal.

We have heard both the parties.

In our considered view, no useful purpose would be served in passing

an order in this appeal while keeping the writ petition pending. We say so

because the period in question, for which tax has been demanded, is 2014-15

and considering the time lapse, it would not augur well for the revenue to

contest the writ petition more so when the grounds raised by the appellant

challenging the assessment order is on the ground of violation of principles of

natural justice.

Therefore, with the consent of the learned Advocates appearing for

either side, the writ appeal and the writ petition are disposed of by this

common judgement and order. The appellant case is that the notice issued

under Section 46 of the WBVAT Act was not received and the address to which

it was sent, was not the complete address of the appellant. Further, on merits

also the appellant seeks to canvass certain issues which we are not inclined to

consider as disputed questions of fact are involved in such issues. We need

not go into the controversy as to whether the notice was sent to the correct

address or not. Since the matter is of 2014-15 and only one notice was issued

to the appellant before passing the assessment order dated 21.02.2017, we are

of the view that one more opportunity can be granted to the appellant.

However, such opportunity shall be subject to certain conditions.

In the result, the writ appeal and the writ petition stand disposed of

with the following directions:-

The appellant is directed to deposit with the first respondent a sum of

Rs. 50,000/- within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of the

server copy of this order. Upon such deposit, the appellant shall be entitled to

treat the assessment order dated 21.02.2017 as a show cause notice, submit

their objections within 15 days from the deposit of the said sum of Rs.

50,000/-. Thereafter, the Assessing Officer, namely the first respondent, shall

afford an opportunity of personal hearing to the authorized representative of

the appeal and redo the assessment in accordance with law.

If the appellant complies with the above conditions of deposit of a

sum of Rs. 50,000/-, the garnishee proceedings and the attachment of the

bank account of the appellant shall be lifted. In the event, the appellant fails

to comply with the above condition, the benefit of this order will not enure in

favour of the appellant and the writ appeal would stand automatically

dismissed leaving the order passed in the writ petition intact. The appellant

shall cooperate with the assessment proceedings and the Assessing Officer

shall complete the proceeding at the earliest but not later than six weeks from

the date on which the personal hearing is concluded.

The appeal along with the connected application and the writ petition

are, accordingly, disposed of.

      (Bivas Pattanayak, J.)                                 (T.S.Sivagnanam, J.)




KOLE/S. Banerjee
Assistant Registrars (Court)