- (1.) The petitioner a private limited company incorporated under the provision of the Indian Companies Act and registered under the provision of U.P. Value Added Tax, 2008 (in short the 'Act') and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 has approached this Court seeking the following reliefs : "(1) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Respondent no. 3/Respondent no. 4 to provide copies to the petitioner of documents seized by the Respondent No. 3 after invoking the provisions of Section 45 of the U.P. Vat Act, 2008 during the survey conducted on 30-07-2013 and 31-07-2013 by the S.i.B. Authorities at the warehouse of the petitioner situated at 24-A, Echo Tech-2, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. and also to provide/give a copy of the survey report so prepared. (2) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Respondent No. 4 not to complete the assessment of the A/Y ? 2011-12 without providing copies of the documents being relied upon by him to the petitioner and giving appropriate time to the petitioner to file an appropriate explanation. (3) Issue any other writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court deems fit in the facts and circumstances of the case."
(2.) The above reliefs have been claimed by the petitioner in the backdrop of the following facts :
(3.) The Special Investigation Branch (S.I.B) of the Commercial Tax Department of State, which is under the supervision and control of the Deputy Commissioner (S.I.B), Commercial Tax, the respondent no. 3 conducted a survey at the warehouse of the petitioner. The team invoking the provision of Section 45 of the Act seized various records of the petitioner company including register, documents etc. After survey and seizure of the documents, show cause notice was issued to the petitioner. According to the pleadings of the petitioner, time allowed in the show cause notice of 3 days was very short, still the Company appeared on each and every date fixed and made necessary compliance to the extent possible. Another notice no. 325 dated 22-09-2013 under Section 45(10) of the Act was issued requiring the petitioner to appear on 30-09-2013 at 11 am along with books of account, balance sheet, Bank statement and other documents. The petitioner claimed that he apepared on the date fixed before respondent no. 3 and submitted a reply dated 30-09-2013 explaining chronologically compliance made in response to the various earlier notices as also the documents submitted in reply to the said notice. The petitioner again vide letter dated 06-12-2013 made a specific request to the respondent no. 3 to return the seized documents taken away at the time of survey. Respondent no. 3 replied to the said letter stating that the report of the survey has been handed to the respondent no. 4/Joint Commissioner (Corporate Circle), Commercial Tax, Noida and in future correspondence in this regard be made with him. The petitioner vide letter dated 30-01-2014 requested the respondent no. 4 for providing the copies of documents seized during survey. Another letter dated 22-02-2014 was again addressed to the respondent no. 3 for supplying the copies of documents seized during survey. It was pointed out in the said letter that since assessment proceedings are going on and the seized documents and the survey report are being relied upon by the respondent no. 3, as such, it was expedient and necessary that the petitioner be given the copies of the documents seized so as to enable it to give appropriate explanation and submit an effective reply.;