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Judgment
Sivasubramaniam, J.—Mr. M. S. Rajasekaran, Government Advocate (Taxes), takes notice for the respondent.
The writ petition is for the following relief :
...... to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order directing the respondent to accept the bank guarantee produced
by the petitioner and acknowledge receipt of the same to enable the petitioner to approach the appellate authority for grant of stay, pending
disposal of the appeal before the appellate authority .......
According to the petitioner, against the order of assessment, he preferred an appeal and filed an application for stay before the appellate
authority. In order to seek an order of stay, he obtained a bank guarantee from the Indian Bank, Harbour Branch, Madras, for a sum of Rs.
36,672.35 as a security for the grant of stay. As per the procedure, the bank guarantee together with the security bond have to be produced
before the assessing authority for verification before the same is filed before the appellate authority. Accordingly, he produced the security bond
along with the bank guarantee bond before the assessing authority. However, he refused to receive the bank guarantee on the ground that he has
already attached the bank account of the petitioner. I find that the course adopted by the respondent is wholly unwarranted and that the attachment
to bank account has nothing to do with the receipt of the bank guarantee furnished by the petitioner along with the security bond. The respondent is
expected to merely acknowledge receipt of the same so that necessary orders can be passed by the appellate authority. It is not the case where
the security offered is not acceptable or something like that. On a consideration of the entire facts, I find that the petitioner is justified in seeking the
relief asked for in this writ petition.
In the result, this writ petition is allowed and the respondent is directed to receive the bank guarantee produced by the petitioner and
acknowledge receipt of the same to enable the petitioner to approach the appellate authority for grant of stay, pending disposal of the appeal. In so
far as the operation of the bank account is concerned, it will depend upon the interim orders to be passed by the appellate authority. No costs.
Writ petition allowed.