Rajasthan HC dismisses Petition on Ground of lack of Jurisdiction by applying the Doctrine of Exhaustion of Alternate Remedies [Read Judgment]

AAR - Tax officers - Fee - Rajasthan High Court - Taxscan

The Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court in the case of M/s HCL Infosystems Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan held that in absence of a breach of fundamental rights and on availability of alternative remedies, the alternate forums shall be approached before the present court.

The present appeal has been preferred against the judgment of the Hon’ble Single Judge, dismissing appellant’s writ petition. The appellants in the writ petitions challenged the notices issued to them under Section 25, 26, 55 and 61 of the Rajasthan Value Added Tax Act, 2003. It was held that the appellants would have an efficacious alternate remedy of successive appeals provided in the Act of 2003 itself. Considering however that the period for filing the appeal has expired, the learned Single Judge gave liberty to the appellants to file appeal within 60 days from the date the judgment is pronounced.

The issue before the present case is hence with respect to the determination of the availability of an alternative remedy of appeal i.e. the remedy of the first appeal before the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and second appeal before Rajasthan Tax Board or resides with the present court.

The appellant contended that the re-assessment orders passed by the Assessing Officer in these matters are without any jurisdiction and the writ petitions can be directly maintained before the present court by the exercise of extraordinary jurisdiction in exceptional cases under Article 226 of the Constitution of India without the exhaustion of alternative remedies.

The Bench constituting of Justices Narendra Singh Dhaddha and Mohammad Rafiq after analyzing the precedents of the Supreme Court on the subject upheld the decision of the Hon’ble Single Judge Bench. The Bench further held that the present case did not completely lack the jurisdiction in passing the reassessment order. It went on to hold that the case of the appellants cannot also fall in any category of exceptions consisting of breach of a fundamental right.

On the above grounds, the Court held upheld the order of the Court while applying the doctrine of exhaustion of alternative remedies.

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