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2012 (12) TMI 802 - DELHI HIGH COURTTax defaulter - former director in the company - government dues under the Customs Act, 1962 - Held that:- Considering the provisions of section 142 & Relevant Rules it is only the defaulter against whom steps may be taken under Rules. The defaulter is the person from whom dues are recoverable under the Act, which in the present case undoubtedly is the company. There is no averment that the company has been or is being wound up. In that case, there cannot be any question about the separate juristic personality of an existing company and its former director, the dues recoverable from the former cannot, in the absence of a statutory provision, be recovered from the latter. There is no provision in the Customs Act, 1962 corresponding to Section 179 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 or Section 18 of the Central Sales Tax, 1956 which enable the revenue authorities to proceed against directors of companies or such like third parties who are not defaulters - As decided in UOI vs. M.D. Lotlikar [1987 (11) TMI 24 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT] the directors of any company, whether public limited or private, are not personally liable for the debts of the company unless the Company Court finds them guilty of any misfeasance or wrongs - Thus the impugned notices and action of the Customs authorities in the present case is at once in utter violation of Article 265 of the Constitution, as it seeks to recover tax dues of one from another, without authority of law. It also amounts to illegal deprivation of the petitioner’s property, without authority of law, under Article 300-A of the Constitution of India - Writ allowed.
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