Case Law Details
Additional Commissioner of Sales Tax Vs Shree Sacha Creation (Bombay High Court)
In the case of Additional Commissioner of Sales Tax vs. Shree Sacha Creation, the Bombay High Court addressed the applicability of Section 7 of the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty, or Late Fee Act, 2023. Section 7(1) stipulates that arrears determined by any statutory order for the specified period up to April 30, 2023, amounting to Rs.2 lakhs or less per financial year, shall be written off, notwithstanding any provisions in the relevant Act. The arrears in this case were less than Rs.2 lakhs. Ms. Chavan, representing the case, requested disposal of the reference while keeping the issue of law unresolved for potential future cases involving arrears exceeding Rs.2 lakhs. The court agreed, clarifying that the legal issue has not been decided and can be addressed in subsequent references where arrears exceed Rs.2 lakhs per financial year. Consequently, the reference was returned unanswered.
FULL TEXT OF THE JUDGMENT/ORDER OF BOMBAY HIGH COURT
1 Ms Chavan states that Section 7 of the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee Act, 2023 (the said Act), under Sub Section (1) provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the relevant Act or under the said Act any arrears determined as per any statutory order for the specified period, as on 30th April 2023, which are Rs.2 lacs or less per financial year under the relevant year shall be written off. In this reference, the amount in arrears is less than Rs.2 lacs. Therefore, Ms Chavan states that the reference be disposed keeping open the issue of law to be decided. Ms Chavan is correct because there could be some references, where the same issue of law is required to be decided and the arrears would be in excess of Rs.2 lacs.
2 Therefore, we dispose the reference accordingly. We clarify that the issue of law has not been gone into and the same can be decided in any other appropriate reference where the amount of arrears is in excess of Rs.2 lacs per financial year.
3 Therefore, this reference is returned unanswered.
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