TMI Blog1953 (4) TMI 18X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s decision was com- municated to the Commissioner of Sales Tax on 1st July, 1952. On 23rd August, 1952, the Commissioner of Sales Tax applied to the Sales Tax Tribunal under Section 30(1) of the Sales Tax Ordinance to refer to the High Court questions of law arising out of the Tribunal's order but this application was dismissed by the Tribunal on the ground that it was barred by limitation, the view taken being that Section 28 of the Ordinance, under which Sections 4 and 12 of the Limitation Act applied in computing the period of limitation, did not apply to the case of an application made under Section 30(1) of the Ordinance and that Section 29 of the Limitation Act too did not assist the Sales Tax Commissioner. It is against this order th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... order without giving any previous intimation, that it was pronounced on the back of the parties and that intimation of the order was received by the applicant when a copy was received by him from the Sales Tax Tribunal. The copy seems to have been sent in accordance with Rule 58 of the Sales Tax Rules. Mr. Mehta for the opponent has, on the other hand, urged that the hearing of the revision application was made by the Tribunal on 23rd August, 1952, and the order was pronounced on the same day and it should therefore be taken that the applicant had notice of the decision, or that he had come to know of it. However there is no denial of the specific averments made in paras. 6 and 7 of the present petition and it may well have been that the or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f coming to know of the order, after referring to two earlier decisions of the Madras High Court, Secretary of State v. Gopisetti Narayanaswami(1) and Swaminathan v. Latchumanan(2) and to Firm of Mohan Lal v. Commissioner of Income- tax, Bihar and Orissa(3), his Lordship the Chief Justice upheld the petitioner's contention that the date of the order does not mean the date when the officer passed the order but the date when such order was either communicated to the party or the date when it was pronounced or published in such a manner that the party must be deemed to have notice of it or the date of such pronouncement or publication. In the opinion of the learned Judge the rule laid down in the earlier Madras decisions was based upon a salut ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . 1953 Orissa 23; 3 S.T.C. 453. (2) (1930) A.I.R. 1930 Mad. 490. (5) (1911) 34 Mad. 151, at p. 154. (3) (1930) 9 Pat. 172. The view taken in Muthia Chettiar's case(1) and the other decisions above referred to is in accord with principles of natural justice because in fairness to the party, who under the statute has been given the right to dispute the adverse order, limitation should not begin to run until he comes to know of the order, because it is only then that he is made aware of the fact that the decision is adverse to him and that he has a right to approach the higher authority. It would be different if notice of the pronouncement of the order has been given in advance because in that case if the party does not care to acquaint himsel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he point made by Mr. Mehta besides does not touch the precise question raised before us, namely, when can an order be deemed to have been made or passed and that question cannot be decided by a comparison of some other provisions. A similar contention made in Muthiah Chettiar's case(1) was rejected by the learned Chief Justice. Another contention made by the Advocate-General was that Sec- tion 12(3) of the Limitation Act would apply, by virtue of Section 29 of the Limitation Act and that the time taken for obtaining the copy of the order should be excluded. In the view we are taking on the first point, this question is not material for a decision of this case and we do not therefore propose to consider it. (1) (1951) A.I.R. 1951 Mad. 204; 1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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