JVAT: Period of limitation to appeal against assessment order commences from date of service of demand notice, not from date of assessment order

Anand Lubricating & Pneumatic Systems Vs State of Jharkhand (Jharkhand High Court)

Conclusion: Orders of assessments were a quasi-judicial order passed after hearing of assessee, followed by issuance of demand notices as per the provision of JVAT Act itself and assessee had statutory remedies against the orders of assessments whose limitation commence from the date of receipt of the demand notices and not from the date of the assessment orders

Held: Assessee was a dealer registered under the provisions of Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (JVAT Act, 2005) and Central Sales Tax, Act, 2006 (CST Act, 1956). It filed application for surrender of the registration certificates before the Commercial Tax department w.e.f. March, 2015. It was regularly filing its returns to the respondent-Commercial Tax department and its regular assessment proceedings were completed. However, for the assessment years, 2009-10 and 2010-11, assessee was neither communicated the copy of the assessment orders, nor copy of the demand notices till July 2018 for both under Central Sales Tax (CST) as well as Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2006 (JVAT). Assessee was served with four demand notices for the assessment years, 2009-10 and 2010-11 , both CST and JVAT through e-mail on 03.08.2018 wherein the date of payment had been notified as 13.08.2018, i.e., after expiry of more than four years from the alleged date of demand notices. It was argued that the aforesaid action of respondents demonstrated that the assessment proceedings including impugned the assessment orders and demand notices were antedated which had been done by manipulating the records and consequently, the assessments having been done beyond the statutory period, though antedated, were void ab initio. Admittedly, assessee was served with four demand notices for the years 2009-10( JVAT and CST) and 2010-11 ( JVAT and CST) for the first time on 03.08.2018. The demand notices as well as the assessment orders under CST as well as JVAT for both the years were under challenge in these writ petitions alleging ante-dating to save period of limitation. It was held that the orders of assessments were a quasi-judicial order passed after hearing of assessee, followed by issuance of demand notices as per the provision of JVAT Act itself and assessee had statutory remedies against the orders of assessments whose limitation commence from the date of receipt of the demand notices and not from the date of the assessment orders. In the present cases the order sheets revealed that the date on which the impugned orders of assessments were passed, assessee not only appeared through an advocate but even its liability was quantified and mentioned in the order sheets after passing the orders of assessment in separate sheets thus, the writ petition filed by assessee was dismissed.

FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF JHARKHAND HIGH COURT

1. Heard Mr. Sumeet Gadodia, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner.

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