Judgment:
1. This is an application under Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987 challenging the seizure of goods made on July 9, 1999 and the amount of penalty imposed thereby. Similar issue being involved in RN-306 of 2002, 307 of 2002, 308 of 2002, 309 of 2002, 310 of 2002, 311 of 2002, 312 of 2002, 314 of 2002, 315 of 2002, 321 of 2002, and 322 of 2002, all these matters were heard together along-with RN-305 of 2002.
2. In RN-305 of 2002 it is the case of the petitioner that the goods were seized without any bona fide reason and the amount of penalty of Rs. 15,000 was imposed arbitrarily. The goods were released on making deposit of the said amount of penalty on November 16, 1999. No copy of the order was received by the petitioner inspite of several verbal request. The order of seizure and penalty, therefore, is illegal and liable to be set aside.
3. Similar case has been made out in all other applications though the date of seizure were different. In RN-306 of 2002, 307 of 2002, 308 of 2002, 309 of 2002, 310 of 2002, 311 of 2002, 312 of 2002, 314 of 2002, 315 of 2002, 321 of 2002, and 322 of 2002, seizure was made on December 29,1999, January 28, 2000, January 25, 2000, January 29, 2000, February 2, 2000, December 2, 2000, December 6, 2000, January 29, 2000, February 18, 2000, and December 29, 1999, respectively.
4. The respondent in his affidavit-in-opposition categorically stated that the seizure was valid and receipt was handed over to the driver of the vehicle after seizure of goods who accepted it under his signature.
The penalty amount in all these cases were also paid. Therefore, the petitioner has taken absolutely baseless plea and the case is speculative. The application, therefore, is liable to be dismissed. It is submitted on behalf of the respondents that the applications are hopelessly barred under the provision of Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987.
5. The only point for consideration is if the present application is barred under the provision of Sub-section (2) of Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act and if the petitioner is entitled to get the relief as prayed for.
6. Admittedly in all the cases, the petitioner deposited the penalty amount immediate after the date of seizure. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that the petitioner had no knowledge of the penalty proceedings. Moreover, from the xerox copy of seizure receipt filed on behalf of the respondent we find that in almost all the cases, the carrier of the goods received the seizure report under his signature.
Therefore, to challenge the validity of the seizure, the petitioner should have come before this Tribunal within a period of sixty days from the date of the action taken by the respondents. In some of the cases, as we find, the seizure was made as far as back in the year 1999 and in some cases in 2000. The applications were filed in the year 2002 without stating any bona fide ground for causing such delay in filing the cases. Sub-section (2) of Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987 states as follows: Every application under Sub-section (1) shall be made within sixty days from the date of such order passed or action taken, as the case may be, or within such further time as may be allowed by the Tribunal for cause shown to its satisfaction and shall be made in such form and accompanied by such documents or other evidence and by such fee as may be prescribed: Provided that an application may be entertained within sixty days from the commencement of Clause (a) of Section 7 where the applicant proves to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that the order of action by which he is aggrieved was passed or taken, as the case may be, within sixty days prior to the commencement of the aforesaid Clause (a) of the said section and that he has not moved the High Court against such order or action passed or taken under the specified State Act.
7. Therefore, we find that all the applications filed on behalf of the petitioner is barred by the provisions of Sub-section (2) of Section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987. Regarding imposition of penalty the matter should have been taken before the revisional forum for appropriate relief.
8. We, therefore, find no merits in the aforesaid cases and those are liable to be dismissed. All the applications are, therefore, dismissed without costs.