A. P. Shah C.J. - Since the issue involved in all these appeals is one and the same, the appeals are being disposed of by this common judgment.

In all these cases, the assessees, against the orders of assessment, have filed the appeals before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner (C.T.) under section 31 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 (hereinafter, for the brevity sake, referred to as "the Act") and the appellate authority returned the appeal papers since appeals did not accompany the proof of payment of 25 per cent of the disputed tax as per proviso 2 to section 31 of the Amendment Act 19 of 2002, with effect from June 3, 2002. Challenging the orders passed by the appellate authority, the assessees have filed the present writ petitions.

In W.P. Nos. 22347 (Cameo Exports v. Deputy Commercial Tax Officer), 26083 (Vidhya Enterprises v. Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes) and 27441 of 2003 (Kanna Papers v. Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes), the learned single Judge (K. Govindarajan, J.), following the decision in the case of Arasu Rubber Corporation Ltd. v. Additional Deputy Commercial Tax Officer reported in [2002] 126 STC 3