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Judgment
Vinod K. Sharma, J.—The Petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari, to quash the order passed by the Special Committee u/s 16-D of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.
The Petitioner is a dealer in Textile and Ready made garments and an Assessee under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.
The Petitioner filed a return which was not accepted, on the ground that sales tax turn over relating to imported machinery for Rs. 15,20,000/-was wrongly assessed to tax at 12% instead of 20% under Entry 9 of Eleventh Schedule to the Act.
The assessment was thereafter revised on 28.06.2007 by treating the machinery of the Petitioner to be imported textile machinery instead of textile machinery.
The assessment was once again revised @ 20% tax by treating it to be imported machinery under Schedule 11 of Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.
The Petitioner being aggrieved by the assessment order, filed an application u/s 16D of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. before the Special Committee to challenge the assessment, by contending that order of assessment was against the statutory provisions of law, as the machinery sold by the Petitioner was to be treated as textile machinery falling under item 63-B of Schedule 1, thus assessable to tax at 4%.
It was the case of the Petitioner before the Special Committee, that item of textile machinery did not fall in the 11th schedule, as the imported textile machinery will fall under item 63-B of schedule I, which deals with the machinery other than the textile machinery.
The application filed by the Petitioner has been rejected, by the proceedings of the Special Committee dated 30.01.2008. the operative portion of order reads as under:
The assessment is made u/s 12(1) of the TNGST Act 1959 accepting the total and taxable as per return, but varying rate of tax. The case is not coming under the purview of the Committee u/s 16(D) of the Act. Hence the petition is rejected.
The impugned order cannot be sustained. Firstly for the reason, that it is totally a non-speaking order and does not deal with the contention raised by the Petitioner, to challenge the assessment order to be violative of the statutory provisions of Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.
The law is well-settled, that the quasi-judicial authority is required to pass orders meeting with all the contentions raised, so that, the higher authorities can see the legality of reasons for coming to the conclusion.
The order referred to above does not meet with the contentions raised by the petitioner. Secondly, the impugned order is a non-speaking order, which cannot be sustained in law.
Consequently, the writ petition is allowed. The impugned order is set aside, and the case is remitted back to the Special Committee constituted u/s 16-D of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, to pass orders afresh, after meeting with the contentions raised by the Petitioner, and giving reasons for acceptance or non-acceptance.
The Petitioner through counsel, is directed to appear before the Special Committee on 29th September 2011 at 10.30 a.m.
There is No. order as to costs.