TMI Blog1978 (12) TMI 176X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for taking similar action under the Act. The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner-firm was a registered dealer under the Act. It submitted periodic returns about the transactions of sale and purchase made by it. For the assessment year 1970-71, it showed its gross turnover at Rs. 88,67,705.35, whereas the said turnover assessable according to the books produced and the list of sales worked out came to Rs. 2,06,76,966.19. An argument was raised before the Assessing Authority that the returns had been filed correctly and the gross turnover had been worked out incorrectly because of an inadvertent mistake in totalling. This argument did not prevail with the Assessing Authority, which held that there was no absence of mens rea and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt to an abdication of an essential legislative function with respect to a matter found as item 92A of the Union List I of the Seventh Schedule, so that, according to article 246(1) of our Constitution, Parliament has exclusive power to legislate on a topic covered by it? As this question was not argued before us I would only say that the correct canon of construction to apply in such a case is that we should so interpret section 9(2) of the Central Act, if possible, that no part of it may conceivably be invalid for excessive delegation. The well-known maxim applicable in such cases is: ut res magis valeat quam pereat. On a consideration of the provisions mentioned above, it seems to me to be clear that whatever may be the objects of levyin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ervations, the Parliament enacted Act No. 103 of 1976, by which subsection (2A) was added to section 9 of the original Act, which reads as under: "(2A) All the provisions relating to offences and penalties (including provisions relating to penalties in lieu of prosecution for an offence or in addition to the penalties or punishment for an offence but excluding the provisions relating to matters provided for in sections 10 and 10A) of the general sales tax law of each State shall, with necessary modifications, apply in relation to the assessment, reassessment, collection and the enforcement of payment of any tax required to be collected under this Act in such State or in relation to any process connected with such assessment, reassessment, c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... penalties imposable under the State laws. I might also add that the tax collected under the Act is essentially meant for augmenting the revenues of the State Government. The delegation of power, if any, has been made to a responsible authority which had fixed the minimum and the maximum limits of the penalty imposable. Section 9(2A) of the Act cannot be said to suffer from the vice either of abdication of essential legislative function by the Parliament or of excessive delegation of legislative powers. It was then contended by Mr. Mittal, the learned counsel for the petitioner, that the amending Act No. 103 of 1976 was brought on book on 7th September, 1976. Its application to past transactions would follow the constitutional guarantee co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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