Sri Pramod Kumar Srivastava & Anr vs The Commissioner Of Commercial ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 2988 Cal

 D/L40                             C.R.R. No.821 of 2013
May 19,                                    With
 2022
                                     CRAN 7 of 2022
   Bpg.

          In Re: An application under Section 401 of the Code of Criminal
          Procedure;

                               Sri Pramod Kumar Srivastava & Anr.
                                         Versus
                              The Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, West
                                     Bengal & Ors.

                      Ms. Rita Mukherjee,
                      Mr. A. Das,
                      Ms. Shyanti Poddar.
                                       ...for the petitioners.


                      Mr. Sudip Ghosh,
                      Mr. Bitasok Banerjee.
                                              ...for the State.


                      An application being CRAN 7 of 2022 has been preferred

           by the learned advocate appearing for the petitioners praying for

           recalling of the order dated 06.05.2022 wherein the petitioners were

           not represented.

                      Learned advocate relies upon the judgment of New India

           Assurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Krishna Kumar Pandey reported in 2019

           SCC Online SC 1786. By relying upon paragraphs 7 and 11 of the

           said judgment, an argument has been advanced that the provisions

           of Section 362 of the Code of Criminal Procedure do not deter the

           High Court from exercising its inherent jurisdiction under Section

           482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

                      I have considered the order dated 06.05.2022 passed by

           this Court and the specific observations made therein regarding the
                          2




probative value of the documents.

           Learned advocate emphasises that the whole of the

amount which was the subject matter for initiation and registration

of Hare Street Police Station Case No.10 of 2008 dated 04.01.2008

was repaid to the authorities and to that extent, learned advocate

draws the attention to page 48 of the revisional application which is

a photostat copy of the challan. However, the petitioner is not in a

position to ascertain whether the said documents were handed over

to the police authorities prior to the submission of the charge-sheet.

           The investigation of the case commenced under Section

88(6) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 read with Section

403/420/120

B of the Indian Penal Code. The charge-sheet has not

been enclosed and, as such, it is not possible for this Court to

assess as to under what provisions charge-sheet was submitted

before the jurisdictional court.

The thrust of the contentions are two-folds. Firstly, as

the company has not been made an accused, the Directors cannot

be implicated as accused in the case and, secondly, as the subject

matter relates to non-payment of Sales Tax and the same has been

paid, the proceedings should be quashed.

In view of the stage at which the petitioners approached

this Court, I direct the petitioners to canvass the aforesaid two

points before the jurisdictional trial court at the appropriate stage of

the proceedings. The prayer for recalling of the earlier order dated

06.05.2022 is hereby refused.

Accordingly, CRAN 7 of 2022 is disposed of.

All parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly

downloaded from the official website of this Court.

(Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)