Case Law Details
Reliance Industries Ltd. & ors. Vs State of Gujarat (Gujarat High Court)
Conclusion: Section 84A of the Gujarat VAT Act is declared as ultra vires and beyond the legislative competence of the State Legislature under Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and is also declared to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India on the ground of being manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive.
Held: Supreme Court passed an order dated 22.09.2017 in an appeal filed by the State this Court by holding that the Input Tax Credit was required to be reduced twice. i.e, to the extent of total 8%, under sub clauses (ii) and (iii) of Section 11(3)(b) of the VAT Act , in such a way that the reduction should not exceed the amount of the Input Tax credit claimed. In view of the aforesaid judgement of the Supreme Court, Additional Commissioner of Commercial Tax issued a revision notice dated 03/06.11.2017 in Form 503 under Sections 75 to revise the Assessment Order for F.Y. 2008-09 made vide order dated 30.03.2013 for reducing the Input Tax Credit to the extent of 8% under the provisions of Section 11(3)(b)(ii) and 11(3)(b)(iii) of the VAT Act. By an order dated 16.03.2018, this Court quashed and set aside the aforesaid revision notice issued by the department under Section 75 on the ground that the said revision notice could not be sustained being beyond the period of limitation provided under Section 75 of the VAT Act.By virtue of the VAT Amendment Act, 2018, Section 84A came to be added in the VAT Act to be operative retrospectively w.e.f 01.04.2006, inter alia, providing for the exclusion of the period spent between the date of the decision of the appellate tribunal and that of the High Court as well as the Supreme Court in computing the period of limitation, referred to in Section 75 of the VAT Act. In the present case, the period commencing from the date of the decision of this Court dated 18.01.2013 rendered against the revenue upto the date of the decision of the Supreme Court i.e., 22.09.2017 being in favour of the revenue, was sought to be excluded by virtue of the above referred retrospective amendment to enable the department to issue a notice for revision for revising the assessment made for the year 2008-09 and thereby removing the basis of the later judgment dated 16.03.2018 of this Court. Assessee challenged to the constitutional validity on the ground that Section 84A of the GVAT Act was ultra vires and beyond the legislative competence of the State under Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and also on the ground that Section 84A of the GVAT Act was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. It was held that if the unlimited time period was available to the Revenue for assessment/reassessment/revision in any case based on a decision rendered in the case of any other dealer the same would lead to an irreparable situation section 84A of the Gujarat VAT Act was declared as ultra vires and beyond the legislative competence of the State Legislature under Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and was also declared to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India on the ground of being manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable and oppressive.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT
1. Since the issues raised in all the captioned writ applications are the same, those were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.
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