Ashok Bhushan, J. - (1.) Delay condoned. Leave granted.
(2.) All these appeals have been filed against common judgment dated 17.07.2013 of Madras High Court dismissing a bunch of writ petitions filed by the appellants. The main challenge in the writ petitions was provision of Section 19(11) of Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the "Tamil Nadu VAT Act,2006"). For appreciating the issues raised in this batch of appeals it is sufficient to notice the facts in Civil Appeal Nos. 10412-10413 of 2018 arising out of SLP(C)Nos. 36112- 36113 of 2013(ALD Automotive Pvt. Ltd. vs. The Commercial Tax Officer and others).
(3.) The appellant Company is a registered dealer under Tamil Nadu VAT Act, 2006. The appellant Company is engaged in the business of leasing and fleet management of the motor vehicles and resale of used motor vehicles. The head office of the Company is at Mumbai. The head office of the appellant negotiates the purchase price with the local registered dealers in Tamil Nadu and issues the purchase order to the dealer along with the payment including the tax payable under the Tamil Nadu VAT Act, 2006. The registered dealer raises the tax invoice as and when the motor vehicle is ready for delivery to the appellant. The date of purchase for the vehicle in the books of the appellant is same as the date of delivery. The tax invoices of such purchases are received after a considerable delay as the original documents are sent to the Regional Transport Authority for registration of motor vehicles. The appellant enters the details of the tax invoice containing the payment of tax in its books of accounts. The appellant had outsourced the job of collection of original tax invoices to one M/s. MID Controls Private Limited, an Agency specialised for collecting documents. The appellant is entitled to claim Input Tax Credit of the amount of tax paid on the purchases made from the registered dealer of motor vehicle as per Section 19(2) of the Tamil Nadu VAT Act, 2006. As per Section 19(11), if a dealer has not claimed Input Tax Credit for a particular month, the dealer can claim the Input Tax Credit before the end of the financial year or before 90 days from the date of purchase whichever is later. When the appellant filed its returns for the assessment year 2007-2008 for want of the tax invoices, the said Input Tax Credit could not be claimed. The appellant, however, filed revised returns claiming Input Tax Credit on the receipt of the tax invoices from the dealer. The appellant also filed its monthly returns for the period from April, 2007 to February, 2008. The appellant had filed a monthly return for the month of March, 2008 on 06.10.2008. There was delay in filing return. Due to late receipt of original purchase invoices, the appellant revised its returns for the period from March, 2008 to January, 2009 in the month of March, 2009.;