{"id":135987,"date":"1971-02-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1971-02-09T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/c-kunhikannan-nair-vs-state-of-kerala-on-10-february-1971"},"modified":"2014-12-12T01:04:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T19:34:57","slug":"c-kunhikannan-nair-vs-state-of-kerala-on-10-february-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/c-kunhikannan-nair-vs-state-of-kerala-on-10-february-1971","title":{"rendered":"C. Kunhikannan Nair vs State Of Kerala on 10 February, 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Kerala High Court<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">C. Kunhikannan Nair vs State Of Kerala on 10 February, 1971<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_citations\">Equivalent citations: 1971 28 STC 480 Ker<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_author\">Author: M Isaac<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: M Isaac<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<pre><\/pre>\n<p>JUDGMENT<\/p>\n<p> M.U. Isaac, J.  <\/p>\n<p>1. The petitioner is a dealer at Tellicherry. His shop and godown were searched by the second respondent, the Intelligence Officer, Agricultural Income-tax and Sales Tax, Cannanore, on 28th March, 1969. He found that certain articles which were in the shop and the godown had not been entered in the accounts of the petitioner. Notice was issued to the petitioner to show cause why action should not be taken against him under Section 28(4) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. The petitioner submitted his explanation, exhibit P-4 dated 3rd April, 1969, stating that all the articles had been actually entered in his books of account. He also contended that the search and seizure were illegal, and that Section 28(4) of the Act was unconstitutional in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court in <a href=\"\/doc\/913336\/\">Commissioner of Commercial Taxes v. R.S. Jhaver A.I.R.<\/a> 1968 S.C. 59. In the meanwhile the goods seized by the second respondent were released to the petitioner on furnishing cash security for a sum of Rs. 1,269. The second respondent did not take any further action for some time. The petitioner therefore requested the second respondent by letter, exhibit P-5 dated 7th June, 1969, for the matter being disposed of without further delay. Thereupon the second respondent passed an order, exhibit P-6 dated 17th June, 1969, overruling the petitioner&#8217;s objection and levying on the petitioner a penalty of Rs. 1,269 in respect of the alleged unaccounted goods found with the petitioner.    This writ petition has been filed to quash exhibit P-6.\n<\/p>\n<p>2. Counsel for the petitioner contends that Section 28(4) of the Act is unconstitutional, in the light of the aforesaid decision of the Supreme Court. That decision was concerned with the validity of Section 41(4) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959. Though there is some difference between the language employed in the Madras Statute and the Kerala Statute, the purport and effect of both the sections are the same. That decision applies to the instant case. It follows that Section 28(4) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, is unconstitutional, as it is beyond the legislative powers of the State to enact the same. The same view has been taken by the Rajasthan High Court in Hiralal Chhaganlal v. State A.I.R. 1968 Raj. 188, in respect of Section 22(6) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, which corresponds to Section 41(4) of the Madras Act and Section 28(4) of the Kerala Act.\n<\/p>\n<p>3. In the result, I quash exhibit P-6 and direct the respondents to refund to the petitioner within one month from the date hereof the sum of Rs. 1,269 which has been recovered from him by way of cash security. In the circumstances of the case there will be no order as to costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kerala High Court C. Kunhikannan Nair vs State Of Kerala on 10 February, 1971 Equivalent citations: 1971 28 STC 480 Ker Author: M Isaac Bench: M Isaac JUDGMENT M.U. Isaac, J. 1. The petitioner is a dealer at Tellicherry. His shop and godown were searched by the second respondent, the Intelligence Officer, Agricultural Income-tax and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-court","category-kerala-high-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>C. 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