Law:

Section:

Constitution of Pakistan (1962), Art.98-Laches-Gross delay of more than 9 years-High Curt, held, right in dismissing petition. Khalid M. Ishaq, Advocate Supreme Court instructed by Shafiq Ahmad, Advocate-on-Record for Petitioner. Nemo for Respondents. Date of hearing : 15th February 1972. JUDGMENT SAJJAD AHMAD, J.-By an order dated the 10th of Decem­ber 1962, the Sales Tax Officer, Mirpurkhas, assessed the petitioner-company under section 10 (4) of the Sales Tax Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as (`the Act') ex parte at the estimated outturn of sales of cotton and cotton seeds to the value of Rs. 40 lakhs, and created a demand of sales tax amounting to Rs. 90,909 pertaining to the assessment year 1960­61. Sales in favour of licensed manufacturers amounting to Rs. 10 lakhs were exempted from the sales tax under section 4 of the Act. Following a notice of demand dated the 3rd of March 1965, for payment of the arrears of the sales tax, mentioned above, the petitioner wrote to the Sales Tax Officer a lengthy letter dated the 15th of March 1965, Exh. `C' on record, claiming that it had already paid certain arrears under the Income-tax Act. Objection was also taken to certain items claimed as arrears of sales tax. It was further stated in the letter that the Sales Tax Officer did not give credit for the sales made to the licensed manufacturers properly, which were of the value of more than Rs. 40,00,000 made during these years, and that it was not right to recover these taxes till the decision of the appeal or the final assessment of income-tax and sales tax for the years concerned. The letter seems to show that the years referred to in the body of the letter as regards income­tax are the assessment years 1954-55, 1956-57, 1957-58 and 1958-59, whereas those relating to sales tax arrears are mentioned as years 1958-59 and 1959-60. According to the petitioner, no response was made to this letter, and the Sales Tax Officer sent another notice, Exh. `E', to the petitioner on the 19th of May 1969, making a fresh demand for arrears of sales tax outstanding .for the assessment years 1958-59 up to 1962-63, including the amount of Rs. 90,909 for the year 1960-61. Previous…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492