TMI Blog2005 (11) TMI 462X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a consequential direction directing the 3rd respondent to entertain the appeals preferred against the assessment orders in proceedings RC No. 2910/2002-03/APGST/Int., and 1911/2002-03/APGST/Int dated August 6, 2003 respectively for the assessment year 2002-03 without insisting on payment of 12 per cent of the tax imposed by the Assistant Commissioner (Intelligence), the second respondent herein in terms of the said proviso. The petitioners also question the validity of the distraint order dated December 2, 2003. Shorn of all the details, the petitioners challenge the constitutional validity of the second proviso to section 19 of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (for short the Act ). Section 19 of the Act provides for a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... excluded under section 19 of the Act itself. It is fairly well-settled and needs no restatement at our hands that right of appeal is creature of statute and such right can be conditioned in any manner as the Legislature may consider in its wisdom to be appropriate. Right of appeal is not a fundamental right guaranteed as such either by article 14 or by article 19 as is sought to be contended by the petitioners in the instant case. That being the legal position, an appeal provided subject to complying with certain conditions cannot be characterised or held to be unconstitutional. It is unnecessary to burden this order with various pronouncements of the apex court whereunder the similar provisions under various enactments such as the W ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... High Court may in its discretion permit the petitioner to pay the tax in specified instalments or give such other directions of limited nature, as explained above, so long as such directions do not tantamount to granting stay . In view of the authoritative pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Anant Mills's case AIR 1975 SC 1234 that it is permissible to enact a law to the effect that no appeal shall lie against an order relating to an assessment of tax unless the tax had been paid, nothing remains for us to decide as to whether the impugned proviso suffers from any constitutional infirmities. The law is so well-settled that the Legislature in its wisdom may impose accompanying liability upon a party upon whom a legal right of appea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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