S. B. MAJMUDAR, J.

( 1 ) IN this Writ Appeal the Assessee/writ petitioner has brought in challenge the order passed by the learned single Judge.

( 2 ) A few facts leading to this Petition are required to be noted at the outset: the Appellant is an Excise Contractor. He is also a registered dealer under Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to for the sake of brevity as the Act ). The Appellant being aggrieved by the vires of the provisions of Section 68 of the Act, along with others, had filed a Writ Petition before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in w. P. No. 4227-4255/92. The Supreme Court, while issuing notice to the respondents, granted an ex parte Interim Order. The Interim Order dated 15th June, 1982, of the Supreme Court permitted the authorities under the Act to complete the assessments and issue demand notice but restrained the authorities from resorting to recovery proceedings under the Act. The said interim order reads as under ;-"pending notices, it shall be open to the Respondent to take assessments proceedings for determination of the tax and to issue the notice of demand but recovery pursuant to the demand shall not be effected". Pursuant to that order, the Respondent-Authorities completed the assessment for the relevant assessment year 1985-86 in the case of the appellant on 21-6-1990. Thereafter, they raised a demand as permitted by the Supreme Court on 29-6-1990. That demand was raised pursuant to the assessment order passed under Section 6b form No. 6 of the Act read with Section 13 (1) of the Act. As we are to interpret Section 13 for resolving the controversy raised before us, it will be useful to extract Section 13 in extenso, as under :-"13. Payment and Recovery of Tax (1) The tax (or any other amount due) under this Act shall be paid in such manner (in such instalments, subject to such conditions, on payment of such interest) and within such time, as may be prescribed ). (2) if default is made in making payment in accordance with sub-section (1), (i) the whole of the amount outstanding on the date of default shall become immediately due and shall be a charge on the properties of the person or persons liable to pay the tax (or any other amount due) under this Act; and (ii) the person or persons liable to pay the tax (or any other amount due) under this Act shall pay a penalty equal to - (a) one and one half percent of the amount of tax (or any other amount due) remaining unpaid for each month for the first three months, after the expiry of the time prescribed under sub section (1) and (b) two and one half percent of such amount for each month subsequent to the first three months as aforesaid. (Explanation.- For purposes of clause (ii), the penalty payable for a part of a month shall be proportionately determined ). (2-A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the state Government may, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, remit the whole or any part of the penalty payable in respect of any period by any person or class of persons. (3) Any tax assessed, or any other amount due under this Act from a dealer (or any other person) may without prejudice to any other mode of collection be recovered - (a) as if it were an arrear of land revenue, or, (aa) by attachment and sale or by sale without attachment of any property of such dealer or any other person by assessing authority or the prescribed officer in accordance with such rules as may be prescribed; (b) notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal procedure, 1973 (Central Act 2 of 1974), on application to any magistrate, by such Magistrate as if it were a fine imposed by him: (Provided that where a dealer or other person who has appealed or applied for revision of any order made under this Act and has complied with an order made by the appellate or the revising authority in regard to the payment of the tax or other amount, no proceedings for recovery under this sub-section shall be taken or continued until t

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