- (1.) The petitioner is a company incorporated under the Companies Act and is engaged in the manufacture and sale of extra neutral alcohol/rectified spirit and other products. The petitioner has entered into an agreement with various parties, i.e., respondent Nos. 4 to 20 for supply of the products manufactured by it on terms and conditions specified in the agreement. It is alleged that in the agreement it was also indicated that the supply of the product shall be made by the petitioner on concessional rate of tax and that the respondent companies would supply Form-C to the petitioner company to avail the benefit of concessional sales made by them. Some of the private respondent companies are public sector undertakings but majority of them are private companies. Based on the agreement entered by the petitioner with various parties it is alleged that the goods were supplied on concessional rate of tax but the respondents failed to issue Form-C. Due to the non-supply of Form-C by the private respondents, the petitioner could not submit Form-C to the tax department. Accordingly, the Assessing Officer passed assessment order levying the general rate of tax applicable on the sale made by the petitioner. The petitioner, being aggrieved by the assessment orders passed under U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 as well as under Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 for the assessment years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07, has filed the present writ petition for quashing of the assessment orders as well as for a writ of mandamus commanding the private respondents to supply Form-C to the petitioner to enable the petitioner to avail concessional rate of tax under the Central Sales Tax Act.
(2.) We have heard Sri Tarun Veer Singh Khehar, learned counsel alongwith Sri Avnish Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri C.B. Tripathi, learned special counsel for the State.
(3.) The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that he had supplied the goods to the private respondents, some of whom are public sector undertaking, at concessional rate of tax under the agreement and consequently, the petitioner was entitled to receive Form-C from them in order to avail the concessional rate of tax in the assessment proceedings. The petitioner contended that a public duty is cast upon the respondents to issue Form-C and since the same has not been issued, the writ Court has the jurisdiction to issue a mandamus commanding the respondent companies to supply Form-C to the petitioner. In support of his contention the learned counsel has placed reliance upon a decision of the Madras High Court in TvL City Tower Hotels (P) Ltd. v. The Commercial Tax Officer, decided on 13.3.2003 (2003) RD-TN 209. This decision is not helpful nor applicable in the instant case. In the said decision the tax authorities were not issuing Form-C to the petitioner on the ground that the petitioner would misuse Form-C and in that scenario writ Court issued a mandamus directing the authorities to issue Form-C. The learned Counsel for the petitioner further relied upon a decision of the Gauhati High Court in OMIL-JSC-JV v. Union of India and others,2013 61 VST 370, where direction was issued to the respondent company to issue Form-C.;