- (1.) The present set of writ petitions raises following important questions of constitutionality centering on Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and also the extent and purport of the ancillary powers vested in the State legislature, which has enacted the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, and subsequently, the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004. 1. Whether penalty can be imposed on a 'transporter', who facilitates and/or abets evasion of tax by a 'dealer' and because of whose such default, evasion of tax takes place? 2. Whether tax, which is, otherwise, chargeable on, and recoverable from, a 'dealer', can be charged on, and/or recovered from, a 'transporter' ? 3. Whether realization of tax from a 'transporter' under Section 13 A of the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, and Section 77 of the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004, is constitutionally valid? 4. Whether the provisions contained in Section 13 A of the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, and Section 77 of the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004, imposing penalty to the extent of 150% of the 'tax involved' is constitutionally valid ? 5. On a conspectus of all the statutory provisions, contained in the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, prior to its 8th amendment, when the Supreme Court, in Tripura Goods Transport Association v. Commissioner of Taxes, 1999 2 SCC 253, had already held that there is no liability on a 'transporter' to pay tax and/or penalty, whether the subsequent insertion of Section 13 A in the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, vide the 8th amendment, can be sustained ?
(2.) The above are some of the important questions of law, which require adjudication in the present set of writ applications, wherein the legality and validity of Section 13 A of the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976, and Section 77 of the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004, are principally under challenge.
(3.) Before we attempt to answer the questions posed above, it is imperative that we take into account the circumstances, where under the writ petitions have been filed, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, raising the questions, which we have indicated above. The material facts, therefore, giving rise to these writ petitions, may, first, be noted. Background Facts;