Demise of the counsel is not a valid reason for Condonation of Delay of 2569 days for Sales Tax Appeal: Orissa HC [Read Order]

The Orissa High Court ( HC), has held that the demise of the counsel is not a valid reason for the condonation of delay of 2569 days for the Sales Tax appeal.

Light & Electronics, the petitioner filed the revision petition against an order dated 7th May 2016 passed by the Orissa Sales Tax Tribunal (OSTT), Cuttack (Tribunal) dismissing the Dealer/Assessee’s S.A. No.48/2015-16 on the ground of delay.

There was a delay of 2569 days in the Assessee filing the said appeal against an order dated 28th April 2008 passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax (ACST), Cuttack-1 Range, Cuttack partly allowing the appeal by the Petitioner/Assessee against the assessment order of the Sales Tax Officer (STO) under Section 12(8) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act for the year 2003-04.

The ACST had reduced the demand of Rs.9,84,476/- to Rs.3,89,130/-. The aggrieved assessee filed the aforementioned Second Appeal before the Tribunalwith a delay of 2569 days. It was stated in the application for condonation of delay before the Tribunal that the Lawyer handling the case had suffered from serious illness and ultimately died on 6th August 2012.

It was stated that the Papers had been entrusted to such an Advocate to file the appeal but, the Assessee had not bothered to follow up with the Advocate to ascertain whether the appeal had been filed or not. The Tribunal declined to condone delay not.

MrSaswat Kumar Acharya, counsel appeared for the Petitioner placed reliance on a judgment of the Supreme Court of India in Collector, Land Acquisition v. MST Katiji (1987), where observations have been made that there must be a justice-oriented approach in examining if there was sufficient cause for condoning the delay.

It was evident that the above decision arose in the context of the Land Acquisition Act. It acknowledged that persons before the Courts in such cases may not be the persons who may be aware of the complexities of the legal procedure.

A Coram comprising of Justice M S Raman viewed that what was expressed in the context of the Land Acquisition proceedings cannot ipso facto be extrapolated to proceedings like the present one which arises under the Sales Tax legislation. The Assessee is fully aware of the requirement of having to file returns and proceedings within time.

The Court was not satisfied by the explanation offered for an extraordinary delay of 2569 days and the revision petition was dismissed.  

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