9911796707
TMI Blog1971 (4) TMI 81X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... petitioner before the revenue as well as the Appellate Tribunal was that in accordance with G.O. Ms. No. 1285, Revenue, dated 27th April, 1959, he was not liable to sales tax for the year 1959-60, as, under the G.O., the plantain dealers, who are not income-tax assessees or who have not submitted or called upon to submit returns under the Indian Income-tax Act, are not liable to pay sales tax. The appellate authority found that there was such a G.O., but felt helpless to grant any relief and directed the petitioner to approach the appropriate authority, namely, the State Government, for redress. The petitioner accordingly filed a petition to the Government, and the Government in a laconic order dated 23rd July, 1965, without referring to th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1285, Revenue, dated 27th April, 1959, provides as follows: "In supersession of the orders issued in the Government orders read above, the Government have decided (1) that no sales tax or registration fee need be levied or collected from dealers dealing exclusively in one or more of the following goods, namely, fresh vegetables (other than those mentioned in the First Schedule to the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959) fresh fruits, betels and plantain leaves, flowers, eggs, meat and fish (other than canned meat and fish) unless such dealers have either submitted returns or have been called upon to submit returns to the Income-tax authorities during any one of the last two years; and (2) that the registration and assessing authorities sh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ear 1958-59, it appears that the petitioner submitted a return, but it resulted in a nil assessment. Such executive instructions, which confer a certain benefit to a dealer and relieve him from the burden of taxation, have to be liberally interpreted. The mere fact that a return was submitted for the year 1958-59 cannot be the sine qua non to bring the dealer into the net of taxation and deprive him of the benefit of the exemption envisaged in the G.O. in question. As the returns submitted by him for the year 1958-59 ended in nil assessment, it is obvious that he was not assessed to income-tax for that year as well. The primary intendment of the G.O. appears to be that persons who are not assessed to income-tax ought not to be assessed to s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... more than one person and whether such an assurance was given effect to in favour of some and denied to some others never loomed large. It was in those circumstances, the Supreme Court said: "There can be no estoppel against a statute. If the law requires that a certain tax is to be collected, it cannot be given up, and any assurance that it would not be collected, would not bind the State Government, whenever it chose to collect it." The above observations are not of universal application, but they have to be applied to the facts of that case. In the instant case, it is not denied that some plantain dealers did have the benefit of the executive instructions and in that sense they were exempt from payment of sales tax. As law has to be gi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sment. The attitude of the Government in not having exercised its executive power consistent with its own executive instructions in the G.O. aforesaid, bespeaks of discrimination and its order is, therefore, violative of article 14 of the Constitution. In the foregoing circumstances it is clear that the petitioner is entitled to take advantage of G.O. Ms. No. 1285, Revenue, dated 27th April, 1959, and this advantage having been denied by the revenue as well as the authorities functioning as quasi-judicial tribunals under the Act and ultimately the benefit having been denied by the very executive who passed the above G.O., the entire process of assessment projects errors apparent on the record. Besides, at every stage when the petitioner wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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