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TMI Blog2010 (10) TMI 961X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... I, Commercial Taxes, Palakkad, dated December 19, 2008. The assessee sold certain lubricant oil valued at rupees 25 lakhs approxi mately to a purchaser at Mangalore. The commodity sold was sought to be transported to Mangalore by a lorry bearing Registration No. TN/41-B 1927. The said vehicle in the course of its journey from Coimbatore (asses see's place of business) obtained a transit pass contemplated under section 30B of the Act. Section 30B in so far as it is relevant for the present purpose is sub-section (1) which reads as follows: "30B. Transit of goods through the State and issue of transit pass.- (1) When a vehicle or vessel carrying goods from any place outside the State and bound for any place outside the State passes through ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sale: Provided that where the goods carried by such vehicle or vessel are, after their entry into the State, transported outside the State by any other vehicle or conveyance, the onus of proving that goods have actually moved out of the State, shall be on the owner or driver or person-in-charge of the vehicle or the vessel, as the case may be." In view of such inference the petitioner herein who is the vendor of the goods was assessed to tax under the provisions of the Act. Aggrieved by such assessment, the petitioner herein carried the matter in a succession of appeals and eventually ended up in this court by the present revision. The learned counsel for the petitioner argued that in view of the language of sub-section (3)1 of s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sub-section (3) of section 30B, the Legislature only declared the liability to pay the tax by the owner or driver or person-incharge of the vehicle carrying the goods which are presumed to be liable to tax in view of the declaration contained under sub-section (2) extracted supra. But for the declaration under sub-section (2) the driver or transferor would have not tax liability as they are not parties to the sale transaction. Sub-section (3) declares that such liability of the abovementioned persons connected with vehicle shall be joint or several. The submission of the learned counsel that such liability either joint or several is exclusive to the three categories of the abovementioned persons, but does not extend to the vendor who is no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... false or the consignor or purchaser stated therein is found to be bogus or non-existent or is not traceable or where the transporter fails to prove the bona fides of the transport, it shall be presumed that such goods have been sold in the State by the consignor or the owner of the goods or the transporter or the owner or person-incharge of the vehicle or the person-in-charge of the goods or all of them jointly and they shall be jointly and severally liable to pay tax on such sales which shall be assessed and recovered in the manner provided for in sub-section (3)." The fact that such a declaration in form C is given need not necessarily establish that the content of the declaration is true. When the truth of the content of the decl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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