RANCHI, India, March 19 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on March 17:
1. Heard learned counsel for the parties.
2. Since common issue is involved in all these writ applications; as such with consent of the parties all were heard together and disposed of by this common judgement.
3. For brevity, prayer made in the respective wriy applications is being extracted hereinbelow: -
WP(T) No. 4397 of 2014 1. That in the instant writ application the petitioner above named prays for issuance of appropriate writ(s), order(s), direction(s) from this Hon'ble Court for the following reliefs:-
a. For a declaration that the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 42 of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 regarding reassessment, inserted in the said Act by Jharkhand Ordinance no.2 of 2011 i.e. Jharkhand Value Added Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 (Annexure-13) by section 16 thereof published in the Official Gazette on 1.10.2011 and also by Jharkhand Act 22, 2011 i.e. Jharkhand Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2011 (Annexure-13/1) by section 16 thereof is not applicable for the financial year 2006-07 and the only provision for making reassessment for the said year is section 40(1) of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 and in view of the then subsection (2) of section 40, now renumbered as sub-section (4) of order of section 40 of the said Act, no reassessment can be made under said sub-section (1) of section 40 after the expiry of 5 years from the end of the year as defined u/s 2 (lxiv) to mean the financial year.
B) For a declaration that the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 42 of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 inserted in the said Act by Jharkhand Ordinance no.2 of 2011 ie. Jharkhand Value Added Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 (Annexure-13) by section 16 thereof published in the Official Gazette on 1.10.2011 and also by Jharkhand Act 22, 2011 i.e. Jharkhand Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2011 (Annexure-13/1) by section 16 thereof is arbitrary, discriminatory, oppressive, confiscatory, unreasonable and invalid being violative of Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India and as such the same is unconstitutional ultra vires and therefore not sustainable.
C) For a further declaration that the Notification no. S.O.1 dated 7.5.2011 (Annexure-14) issued under the signature of the Secretary-cumCommissioner, Commercial Taxes Department Jharkhand, Ranchi in the purported exercise of powers conferred by clause (iii) of Section 1 of said Jharkhand Ordinance no.2 of 2011 giving retrospective effect from 1.4.2006 to said sub-section (3) of Section 42 inserted by the said Ordinance is ultra vires to the said Ordinance including section 1 (iii) thereof in so far as it gives such retrospective effect because power of giving retrospective effect to the provisions of the said Ordinance has not been conferred by the legislature upon the State Government under said section 1(iii) of the said Ordinance and in absence of the same, the State Government cannot give retrospective effect to any of the provisions of the said Ordinance including section 16 thereof by which said subsection (3) of Section 42 of the Act has been inserted.
D) For quashing of the reassessment proceeding (Annexure-5) initiated under the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 42 of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005; for the financial year 2006-07; on the basis of Audit objection contained in Annexure-4 by the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Singhbhum Circle, Jamshedpur vide order sheet dated 13.5.2014 because the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 42 of the JVAT Act is not applicable
*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=oVz058q2ZLjDVEITM0Vw1Pz%2BfmZciEFwXxhsQGNgRjpBnpNoYjH5uYLa234TWEC0&caseno=WPC/486/2015&cCode=1&cino=JHHC010277872015&state_code=7&appFlag=)
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