Frost International Limited & Anr vs Deputy Commissioner
2022 Latest Caselaw 7746 Cal

Item no. 19


                IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                          CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
                                 APPELLATE SIDE

Present:
The Hon'ble Justice T.S. Sivagnanam
              And
The Hon'ble Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya


                              FMA 167 of 2022
                                   with
                           IA No.: CAN 1 of 2022


                     .Frost International Limited & Anr
                                    vs.
              Deputy Commissioner, Central Audit Unit & Ors.

Appearance:
For the Appellant         :    Mrs. Rita Mukherjee
                               Mr. Abhijit Das


For the Respondents       :    Mr. A. Ray, Ld. G.P.

Mr. T.M. Siddiqui Mr. D. Ghosh Mr. D. Sahu

Heard on : 22.11.2022

Judgment on : 22.11.2022

T.S. Sivagnanam J.:

This intra-Court appeal filed by the writ petitioners is

directed against the order dated 9 th July, 2022 passed in WP No.30617

(W) of 2017. The said writ petition was filed by the appellants

challenging the order passed by the Fast Track Revisional Authority,

Commercial Taxes, West Bengal dated 10 th November, 2016 in the

revision case filed by the appellant being Revision Case No. Rev-629/FT-

1/15-16. The order passed by the Revisional Authority is an ex parte

order which was questioned in the writ petition. However, the learned

Single Bench was not inclined to interfere with the order passed by the

Fast Track Revisional Authority. Aggrieved by the same the appellants

are before us by way of appeal.

We have heard the learned advocates for the parties at length.

It could be seen that the revision petition was filed under the

provisions of Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 on 18 th March, 2014

challenging the order passed by the Senior Joint Commissioner, Kolkata

South Circle dated 31 st January, 2014. Nearly after elapse of two years

from the date of filing the revisional petition, the same was taken up for

hearing and accordingly an ex parte order was passed by the Revisional

Authority on the ground that the appellant had been intimated about

the date of hearing but they did not respond. It is the contention of the

revenue that no further opportunity was required to be granted to the

dealer. Thus, the revisional application was dismissed without

examining the merits of the matter. The explanation offered by the

appellants with regard to non-appearance on the date of hearing is that

the notice was not sent to the email address of the appellant but was

sent to the personal email account of their Chartered Accountant. In

our considered view, even assuming that revision petition was filed by

the Chartered Accountant or their authorized representative but in the

absence of vokalatnama notice is required to be sent to the party

concerned. Of course there are certain exceptions to this rule which we

need not ponder much in the instant case as we are satisfied that the

appellants should be entitled to an opportunity of being heard so that

the matter can be decided by the Fast Track Revisional Authority on

merits.

In the result, the appeal is allowed and the order passed in the

writ petition is set aside and the order passed by the Revisional

authority dated 10.11.2016 is set aside and the matter is remanded

back to the Fast Track Revisional authority for fresh consideration. In

the event, the case papers are not available with the Revisional

Authority the appellant shall be directed to reconstitute the papers and

an opportunity of personal hearing be afforded to the appellant and a

fresh order be passed on merits and in accordance with law. The

Revisional Authority is directed to take on file the revision application

within three weeks from the date of receipt of the server copy of this

order and complete the proceeding within three weeks thereafter.

Consequently, the connected application also stands disposed of.

There shall, however, no order as to costs.

(T. S. Sivagnanam, J.)

(Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J.)

RP/Amitava (AR. CT.)