9911796707
TMI Blog1997 (12) TMI 602X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in Ahmedabad. According to the petitioner, it was filing quarterly returns in respect of its taxable turnovers under the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 from time to time. However, from the period commencing from 1st July, 1982 till the date of the filing of the petition, i.e., till 26th March, 1992, no assessment orders were received by the petitioner and all assessments for the years 1982-83 to 1988-89 were pending. 3.. It is the petitioner's case that as per the provisions of section 42 of the Gujarat Sales Tax Act, 1969 as it operated at the relevant time, assessment orders under section 41(3) or section 41(4) were required to be passed before the expiry of two years from the end of the year in which th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aking of the stay order. 4.. It has been contended on behalf of the petitioner that the two stay orders which were issued by the respondent No. 1 for the year 1983-84 and for 1982-85 were made without hearing the petitioner and without recording any reasons for staying the proceedings. It was contended that the petitioner had never given any consent for passing of such orders and it is only with a view to avoid indicating reasons and circumstances necessitating stay of the proceedings in writing, that the respondent-authority had vaguely referred to some consent having been given by the petitioner. It was contended that the reliance placed in paragraph 5 of the affidavit-in-reply filed by the respondent-authority on a decision of this Cour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... raordinary circumstances and for supervening reasons which cannot be attributed to the default or failure of the assessing authorities. It was held that it was not enough to say, as was done in that case, that the assessment proceedings were pending and would take "some more time". It was further held that the stay of the assessment proceedings had consequences of a civil nature upon an assessee and that more the time elapses, the more difficult it becomes for the assessee to prove its accounts and claim set-off, exemptions and the like. It was therefore, held that in the circumstances, the power under rule 37-A of the said Rules may not be exercised by the Commissioner without first giving to the assessee notice to show cause why his asses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s, which are filled in and even the mention about assumption of consent of the assessee appears in the printed matter. When the respondent-authority was required to give a show cause notice under rule 37A of the said Rules before making any order staying the proceedings, we fail to understand as to how and in what manner an assumption about the consent of an assessee could be made in absence of any positive consent being given by the assessee. We do not find any contemporaneous record to indicate that any consent was given by the assessee. We are therefore, not prepared to accept the stand reflected in the orders that the proceedings were stayed on the basis of the consent of the assessee. Mere pendency of the assessment proceedings cannot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... after verifying this particular notice in respect of year 1988-89, submitted that the petitioner does not press for its challenge against that assessment notice. So far the notices dated February 20, 1992 for the assessment periods 1982-83 to 1987-88 are concerned, for the reasons that we have given hereinabove, they cannot be sustained since assessment for those periods had been time-barred and there was no valid stay of those proceedings. We therefore, set aside the two stay orders at annexure "A" collectively along with the impugned notices dated February 20, 1992 for the assessment periods 1982-83 to 1987-88. Rule is made absolute accordingly. Needless to say that it will be open for the respondent-authority to take such action as may ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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