Jharkhand High Court
Bharat Petroleum Corporation ... vs M/S B.K.B. Transport Private Ltd. on 23 January, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
Civil Review No. 07 of 2021
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Regional Office, Kolkata through the
Territory Manager namely Sanjeev Gupta --- --- Petitioner
Versus
1. M/s B.K.B. Transport Private Ltd., Dumri, Bermo, Jharkhand
2. The State of Jharkhand through the Secretary-cum-Commissioner,
Commercial Taxes Department, Ranchi
3. The Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Admn.),
Ranchi Division, Ranchi
4. Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, West Circle, Ranchi
5. Union of India through its Secretary, Department of Revenue,
Ministry of Finance, New Delhi --- --- Respondents
---
CORAM: Hon'ble The Acting Chief Justice
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Deepak Roshan
---
For the Petitioner: Mr. Abhinay Kumar, A.C to Mr. M. K. Roy, Advocate
For the Resp.-State: Ms. Amrita Banerjee, A.C to G.P-I
For the Resp.-UoI: Mr. Devanand Kumar, C.G.C
---
04 / 23.01.2023 Heard learned counsel for the parties.
2. The instant Civil Review Petition has been preferred against the
judgment dated 28th August, 2019 passed in W.P. (T) No. 6132 of 2017 and
other analogous writ petitions. However, be it indicated herein that later on, in a
batch of Civil Review Petitions led by Civil Review No. 113 of 2019 preferred
by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., learned Coordinate Bench of this Court of
which one of us (Deepak Roshan, J) was a member, clarified its directions in
the following manner:
10. Having heard the learned counsels for both sides and
upon going through the record, we find that in paragraph-27
of the Judgment quoted above, there is nothing to prejudice
the review petitioners. This Court had only set aside the
circular dated 11.10.2017, issued by the State of Jharkhand in
its Commercial Taxes Department, denying the issuance of
Form-'C', to the writ petitioners and as a necessary
consequence thereof, held the writ petitioners entitle to refund
of the tax deposited by them. Since it was brought to the
notice of this Court that pursuant to the Form-'C' issued in
obedience of the interim orders passed by this Court,
provisional credit notes had also been issued to the writ
petitioners by the review petitioner Oil Company, we made it
clear that the provisional credit notes shall be given effect to,
and in any case, if the CST has been deposited to the State
Exchequer, the respective Oil Companies shall be entitled to
claim the refund thereof.
11. It appears that some of the writ petitioners have filed
contempt applications in this Court for non-compliance of the
Judgment and Order dated 28.8.2019 passed by this Court in
the aforesaid writ applications, which have compelled the
review petitioners to file these review applications. We make
it clear that there is no occasion for review of the Judgment
and Order dated 28.8.2019 passed by this Court in W.P.(C)
No. 6048 of 2017 and the analogous matters, rather, if the
refund of the CST deposited to the State Exchequer in the
State of West Bengal is refused by the State authorities of
West Bengal, it is open to the writ petitioners or even to the
review petitioners to approach the appropriate forum for the
required relief. We only want to make it clear that so far as
the State of Jharkhand is concerned, in paragraph-27 of our
Judgment, we have already given the liberty even to the
review petitioners to claim the refund from the authorities
concerned, if the amount of CST had already been deposited
by them in the State Exchequer. As such, the case of the
petitioners cannot be governed by the Judgment of the
Gujarat High Court in R/Special Civil Application Nos.
15333 of 2019 and 16288 of 2019.
12. We do not find any merit in these civil review
applications and the same are accordingly dismissed, with the
clarification as aforesaid. All the pending caveat and the
interlocutory applications in these review petitions also stand
disposed of.
3. Thereafter, the matter has been considered by Calcutta High Court in a
batch of writ petitions led by W.P.A No. 5306 of 2021 (M/s. Tata Steel Ltd. &
Anr. Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.) and Hon'ble Court have been pleased
to pass the following directions:
14. The Writ Court has the power to mould the relief and to issue
high prerogative writs in order to do complete justice and can mould
the relief in the facts and circumstances of this case.
In view of foregoing discussions all the instant Writ Petitions are
allowed by passing the following orders/directions:
(iii) Impugned order of assessment passed by the Assessing
Officer is set aside to the extent of refusal of acceptance of
relevant "C" Forms submitted before him during the
impugned assessment proceeding by the HSD oil
purchasing dealers/petitioners through the oil selling
dealers/IOCL relating to the relevant disputed period which
were issued by the purchasing respective State
Government, in favour of the petitioners on inter-State
sales in question and it shall accept the aforesaid relevant
"C" Forms and allow concessional rate of tax to the
petitioners on the basis of the said relevant "C" Forms
subject to formal verification of the same.
(iv) The respondent State Government of West Bengal shall
within three months from date process and refund the
excess amount of tax collected by it from the petitioners oil
purchasing dealers in excess of concessional rate of tax
through selling dealers/IOCL in West Bengal in course of
Inter-State sales in question during the relevant period with
interest at the rate of 10% per annum on the basis of
relevant "C" Form submitted by the seller/IOCL during the
impugned assessment proceedings, directly to the
petitioners instead of refunding the same to the Respondent
IOCL after formal verification of the same along with
relevant documents and by affording opportunities of
hearing to the petitioners and IOCL, in course of the said
verification and in the alternate it shall refund the said
amount to the IOCL after such verification and in that event
IOCL shall refund to the petitioners the amounts so
refunded within 15 days from the date of receipt of such
amount by the Respondent State Government of West
Bengal subject to proper indemnification by the petitioners
and the Respondent State Government of West Bengal.
With these observations and direction all these Writ
petition bearing 5306 of 2021, WPA 5307 of 2021, WPA
5603 of 2021, WPA 5864 of 2021, WPA 5866 of 2021,
WPA 5868 of 2021, WPA 6424 of 2021, WPA 6737 of
2021, WPA 6740 of 2021, WPA 13174 of 2021, WPA
13175 of 2021 are accordingly disposed of by allowing the
same. No order as to costs.
Urgent certified photocopy of this judgment, if applied
for, be supplied to the parties upon compliance with all
requisites formalities.
4. It is brought to the Court's notice that FMA No. 857 of 2022
(Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Vs. M/s. Tata Steel & others)
preferred by the State of West Bengal against the judgment rendered in WPA
No. 5306 of 2021 and analogous cases, has been dismissed on 23.11.2022.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the instant petition may be
disposed of in that light.
5. Upon hearing the parties, it appears that much water has flown down
from the stage at which the impugned directions were passed by the learned
writ court in W.P. (T) No. 6132 of 2017 and other connected writ petitions.
Pursuant to the liberty granted by this Court in Civil Review No. 113 of 2019,
several assessees have approached the Calcutta High Court in WPA No. 5306
of 2021. Therefore, the present writ petition is disposed of leaving the parties to
work out their remedies, in accordance with law, and directions passed by this
Court in Civil Review No. 113 of 2019 and Calcutta High Court in WPA No.
5306 of 2021. Accordingly, Civil Review Petition is disposed of.
(Aparesh Kumar Singh, A.C.J)
(Deepak Roshan, J)
Ranjeet/
