S.P. NARAYANASAMY Vs. THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER (CT) TIRUCHI DN. & ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the above writ petition, the petitioner seeks to quash certain order of re -assessment dated 31st May 1968, made under the Madras Entertainment Tax Act, 1939, as confirmed by the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, by his order dated 11th April 1972. The petitioner herein was running a cinema theatre by name 'Everest theatre' and he was paying entertainment tax as per the provisions of the said Act. The theatre was inspected on 5th December 1968 and an exercise note book was seized from the petitioner on that day. On the has is of the entries found in the said exercise note book, which contained entries relating to the collections made from the theatre from 7th May 1960 to 4th December 1963, an order of re -assessment was made by the assessing authority on 31st May 1968 for the period from 2nd June 1963 to 4th December 1963. The petitioner filed a writ petition in this court, but that petition came to be dismissed on the ground that the petitioner had already availed of an alternative remedy of appeal before the appellate authority. Thereafter, the appellate authority upheld the re -assessment and a further revision before the Deputy Commissioner (Commercial taxes) the first respondent herein, had also been dismissed on 11th April 1972.

(2.) In this writ petition, the learned counsel for he petitioner raises two contentions -(1) that the order of re -assessment is legally invalid and that the same cannot also be taken to have been validated by the provisions of Madras Act 20 of 1960 and (2) that there has been no proper enquiry preceding the assessment, and that the petitioner had no reasonable opportunity of putting forward his objections to the assessment.

(3.) As regards the first contention, it is submitted that S.7 of the Madras Act 20 of 1960 has been held to be invalid by the Supreme Court in State of Tamil Nadu v/s. Rayappa, 1971 S.C. 231 and therefore, S.7 -B which was introduced by S.2 of the Madras Act 20 of 1960 in the original Act is inoperative in that the period before which re -assessment could be made had not been prescribed by the rules, as contemplated by that section.