Home Case Index All Cases VAT and Sales Tax VAT and Sales Tax + HC VAT and Sales Tax - 2018 (6) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (6) TMI 1652 - KERALA HIGH COURTImposition of penalties - section 67 of Kerela VAT Act - Compounded rate of tax - clause (b) of Section 8 of Kerala VAT Act - petitioner had installed a Vertical Shaft Impactor Machine, in addition to crushing machines, in their crusher unit - proposal to impose penalty on the petitioner on the sole basis that the output production capacity of the Vertical Shaft Impacter Machine in terms of the information furnished by the manufacturer of the machine in their website is 120 to 200 metric tonnes per hour. Whether there can be a proceeding for imposition of penalty under Section 67 (1) of the Act solely based on website information? HELD THAT:- It is trite that penalty cannot be imposed for failure to carry on statutory obligations unless the party obliged to perform the act has either acted deliberately in defiance of law or was guilty of contumacious or dishonest conduct or acted in conscious disregard of his obligation. Such proceedings being quasi-criminal in nature, the factual allegations, on the basis of which penalty is proposed, must be clearly established from the materials on record. There is absolutely no scope for any inference in such proceedings and the facts are to be established by positive proof. Needless to say, mere suspicion of the facts is not enough. There is no presumption in law that website information relating to merchandise are correct. It is common knowledge that website information, especially that of merchandise, may or may not be correct. Indian Courts had occasion to consider the issue whether print outs of the judgments taken from websites can be relied on and the stand taken is that the same can be relied on, if its authenticity and reliability are not doubted. The pretensions of a manufacturer as regards the products manufactured by them would not bind even the manufacturer, in the absence of fraud, in the light of the principle caveat emptor - there cannot be penal proceedings at all on the presumption that the website information as regards merchandise are correct. The impugned order, in the circumstances, is one issued without jurisdiction. Petition allowed.
|