IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that a taxpayer who has paid the principal tax is entitled to a waiver of interest and penalty under the Amnesty Scheme, regardless of subsequent demands for penalty.

JUDGMENT :

(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA)

1. Heard learned advocate Mr. D.K.Trivedi for the petitioner and learned Assistant Government Pleader Mr. Raj Tanna and Ms. Shrunjal Shah for the respondent-State.

2. By these petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:

“A. Your Lordships may be pleased to admit this petition;

B. Your Lordships may be pleased to allow this petition;

C. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ quashing and setting aside letter dated 11/3/2022 (VERA- DISPOSAL LETTER NO. 77722VSDISP018160995)being issued by Respondent no.01 herein, whereby application of the petitioner bearing no. 99KS0035845 under Vera Samadhan Yojna 2019 was disposed;

D. Your Lordships may be pleased to issue writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ directing the Respondent No, 01 to immediately restore Application No. 99KS0035845 (date of acknowledgement - 25/01/2020) being filed by the petitioner under Vera Samadhan Yojana, 2019 and directing the Respondent No. 01 to issue Remission Order/Certificate in regard to the said application No. 99KS0035845 under the said Yojana to the effect that the petitioner herein would not be required to deposit/pay any amount towards tax/interest/penalty in accordance with said Yojana as the entire amount of tax along with interest is already paid by the petitioner;

E. Pending issuance of notice, admission and final hearing of this petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to stay the operations and implementations of Assessment Order dtd. 09/11/2017 (Annexure “B’ hereinabove) and notice dtd. 10/11/2017 (Annexure ‘C’ hereinabove) being issued by Respondent No. 03;

F. Your Lordships may be pleased to grant such other and further relief that may be deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice in favour of the petitioner.

3. Rule returnable forthwith. Learned Assistant Government Pleader Mr. Raj Tanna waives service of notice of rule for the respondents.

4. Having regard to the controversy in the narrow compass, with the consent of the learned advocates for the parties, the matters were taken up for hearing.

5. For sake of convenience, Special Civil Application No. 26064 of 2022 is treated as the lead matter.

6. Brief facts of the case are as under:

6.1 The petitioner is a proprietorship firm. Notice dtd. 03/07/2017 for issue based assessment u/s. 34(8A) of the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003, was issued to the petitioner in regard to the period from 01/04/2013 to 31/03/2014 by the Respondent No. 03.

6.2 Assessment Order dtd. 09/11/2017 in Form 304 was issued by Respondent No.03. A demand of tax Rs.5,77,331/+ Interest Rs.3,37,738/+Penalty Rs.8,65,996/= Total Rs.17,81,065/was assessed. It is also mentioned in the said order that the petitioner had paid a total amount of Rs.9,15,069/-out of the aforesaid amount. The balance amount of Rs.8,65,996/is payable for which notice in Form 305 would be issued.

6.3 Respondent No. 03 had issued Namuno 305 dtd. 10/11/2017 ie. Notice for recovery of assessment dues whereby the petitioner was asked to pay Rs.8,65,996/-.

6.4 Being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the assessment order, the petitioner herein had preferred an appeal there against before the Respondent No. 02. From the said office, the petitioner had received an acknowledgement slip dtd. 24/01/2018 evidencing that the appeal was filed. As five different appeals in regard to assessment years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 were filed together, the said acknowledge slip contains details of all the five appeals.

6.5 On 06/12/2019, Vera Samadhan Yojana, 2019 was introduced consequent upon introduction of Goods & Services Tax. Said Yojana was applicable to Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 1969 along with various other statutes, All those assessees whose appeals were pending before the appellate authority were eligible to avail benefits under the said Yojana. As per the said Yojana, if t