Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, J. - (1.) Heard Shri Jaideep Narain Mathur, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Shri Madhav Chaturvedi, learned counsel for the petitioner, Dr. Deepti Tripathi, learned counsel representing the respondent nos.12, Shri Dipak Seth, learned counsel representing the respondent nos.34 and learned Standing Counsel representing the respondent nos.5, 6 and 7.
(2.) Under challenge in this petition is an order dated 09.05.2018 passed by the Additional Commissioner (Law), Commercial Tax, Headquarters, Lucknow, whereby the facility of deferment of payment of the Value Added Tax granted earlier by the State Government vide its order dated 10.02014 has been declared to be not available, as a result of which the petitioner which is a sick unit declared, as such under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') is faced with the demand to pay the taxes.
(3.) The petitioner is a producer of Vanaspati Ghee i.e. edible oil. However, for certain reasons, an application was moved under the Act by the petitioner-unit in the year 2001 for declaring it to be a sick unit with a prayer for formulation of rehabilitation scheme. On the said application, the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) declared the unit to be sick on 07.06.2006 and further proceeded to frame Rehabilitation Scheme under section 17(3) of the Act. As per the said rehabilitation scheme sanctioned by the BIFR, the Value Added Tax dues were deferred for a period of five years, however, the said Rehabilitation Scheme sanctioned on 07.08.2012 by the BIFR was modified vide another order of the BIFR passed on 24.09.2013, according to which the deferment for payment of Value Added Tax was made defective for a period of five years w.e.f. 24.09.2013. Thus, as a result of modified Rehabilitation Scheme sanctioned by the BIFR in respect of the petitioner-unit, the benefit of deferment of paying the Value Added Tax dues was available to the petitioner w.e.f. 24.09.2013 till 23.09.2018 which meant that the dues pertaining to the year 2013-14 were payable in the year 2018-19 and henceforth. In terms of the modified Rehabilitation Scheme sanctioned by BIFR on 24.09.2013, the State Government passed an order on 10.02.2014, which has been annexed as annexure-3 to the writ petition, providing therein the deferment of payment of Value Added Tax dues against the petitioner-unit from 24.09.2013 till 23.09.2018. The order dated 10.02.2014 provides for the said deferment and further clarifies that the dues of Value Added Tax shall be payable starting from the 6th years from the date of sanction of the modified Rehabilitation Scheme. Accordingly, in terms of the said Government Order dated 10.02.2014 the benefit of the said deferment was enjoyed by the petitioner-unit. ;