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Judgment
B.S. Verma, J.—Heard Mr. Vinay Kumar, Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. N.P. Sah, learned Standing Counsel for the State.
By means of this petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issue of a writ in the nature of certiorari, quashing the recovery notice dated 19-06-2010, issued by the S.D.M. Bhatwari, Uttarkashi for the amount of Rs. 32,41,309.00 for the Commercial Tax Department.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the petitioner gets the collection of herbs done through its member co-operative societies within the forest area allotted to it by the Forest Department. The petitioner was given exemption from payment of commercial tax for the assessment year 1985-86 to 1995-96. Commercial Tax Officer, Rishikesh, Dehradun assessed the petitioner for the assessment year 1991-92 to 2003-04 for the amount of Rs. 37.37 lakh, treating petitioner to be the ''manufacturer''. Thereafter the S.D.M. Bhatwari, Uttarkashi issued recovery notice to the petitioner organization on 10-12-2009 for the amount of Rs. 32,55,057/-. The petitioner approached the Government to waive off the tax imposed on the petitioner, since the petitioner is not in sound financial position to pay the tax. By his letter dated 31-12-2008, Secretary (Finance), Government of Uttarakhand, while taking into consideration the letter of M.L.A. dated 18.12.2008, directed the District Magistrate, Uttarkashi not to proceed further with recovery notice till the decision is taken on the representation of the petitioner regarding waiving of the commercial tax. It is alleged by the petitioner that in spite of the above order of Secretary (Finance), the recovery notice is still subsisting and the same has not been revoked or cancelled till date. Hence, this petition.
In the course of arguments, the learned Counsel for the petitioner has urged that the petitioner has moved a representation, Annexure No. 10 to the writ petition, before the respondents for redressal of his grievance, but the same is still pending. Hence, the respondents be directed to decide the same by a speaking order and the writ petition may be disposed of today. Prayer is innocuous.
In the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, without entering into the merits of the case, the respondents are directed to take independent decision on the representation of the petitioner and pass a reasoned order thereon, within a period of four weeks from the date of production of certified copy of this order.
With the above direction, the writ petition is disposed of finally.