( 1 ) THIS is a reference as stated by the Sales Tax Tribunal (Board of Revenue) at the instance of the Commissioner of Sales Tax. The facts stated are that the bombay General Stores, Shahdol is a dealer registered under Section 7, Central sales Tax Act, and in its certificate of registration certain goods are specified as being intended for re-sale. The dealer made purchases of goods specified in the certificate of registration and also goods not so specified on payment of concessional rate of tax after furnishing 'c' forms to the selling dealer. The Sales tax Officer held that the dealer by making purchases of goods not specified in the certificate of registration on furnishing 'c' forms deprived the Government of its rightful revenue and committed the offence defined in Section 10 (b) of the Act. Instead of prosecuting the dealer for the offence, the Sales Tax Officer imposed upon it a penalty of Rs. 2,500 as permissible under Section 10 A of the Act. In appeal filed by the dealer to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, the penalty was reduced to a sum of Rupees 1,500. The dealer then went up in second appeal to the Tribunal, which was allowed and the order of imposition of penalty was wholly set aside. The Tribunal held that although the dealer admittedly purchased certain goods under the cover of 'c' forms, which were not specified in the certificate of registration, still it could not be held liable for penalty as there was no finding that it falsely represented when purchasing the goods that they were covered by the certificate of registration. On application made by the commissioner of Sales-tax, the following question of law has been referred by the tribunal for our answer:-

"whether the liability to penalty under Section 10-A of the Central Sales tax Act for contravention of Section 10 (b) of the said Act arises ipso facto on a registered dealer importing goods not mentioned in its registration certificate as goods that he could import on furnishing the prescribed declarations and thus obtained a benefit of the concessional rate without further proof of mens rea. "

( 2 ) UNDER Section 8 of the Act, every dealer, who sells to a registered dealer goods specified in the certificate of registration of the purchasing dealer as being intended for resale by him or for use by him in the manufacture or processing of goods for sale or in mining or in the generation or distribution of electricity or any other form of power, gets the advantage of a concessional rate provided he furnishes to the assessing authority a declaration duly filed and signed by the dealer to whom the goods are sold containing the prescribed particulars in the prescribed form. The form relevant to this purpose is form 'c' which is prescribed by Rule 12 of the Central Sales Tax Rules, 1957. According to this form, the purchasing dealer certifies that the goods purchased are for re-sale, or use in manufacture etc. , and are covered by registration certificate of the purchasing dealer. Section 10 of the Act provides for offences and Clause (b) of it, with which we are concerned, reads: "section 10. If any person -. . . . . (b) Being a registered dealer, falsely represents when purchasing any class of goods that goods of such class are covered by his certificate of registration; or. . . . . he shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both; when the offence is a continuing offence, with a daily fine which may extend to fifty rupees for every day during which the offence continues. " instead of prosecuting any person guilty of any offence under Clauses (b), (c) or (d) Section 10, the authorities are empowered under Section 10-A to impose upon him by way of penalty a sum not exceeding one-and-a-half times the tax which would have been levied if the offence had not been committed. The penalty under section 10-A is in lieu of prosecution and can only be levied if an offence under clauses (b),