The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Government circulars upheld

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Friday, Mar 09, 2007
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Kerala - Kochi

Government circulars upheld

Staff Reporter

HIGH COURTROUND-UP

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has upheld two Government circulars issued under the provisions of the Kerala Value Added Tax Act directing that tax be collected at the check-posts in advance on consignments of certain "evasion-prone" goods.

Justice K. Balakrishnan Nair upheld the circulars while dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by various dealers. The circulars were issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes on December 12, 2006. The "evasion-prone" articles included marbles, ceramic floor tiles and petroleum products except LPG. The dealers in these articles contended that the circulars were illegal, as they did not have the support of any statutory provisions. The imposition of a levy or collection of tax in advance before the sale was effected was unconstitutional. The provisions in the Act did not authorise the Commissioner to order collection of tax in advance.

The State Government contended that it was to prevent evasion of tax by dealers that taxes were collected in advance.

The judge observed that the Commissioner had been rightly authorised to specify "the evasion-prone goods." The classification of such goods had been made on a rational basis. Unless tax was demanded, there was likelihood of evasion of tax. The classification was made on a good basis to achieve the object of safeguarding the interests of the State by preventing the evasion of tax. The free flow of goods was not prevented by demanding tax in advance.

Sentence commuted

A Bench comprising Justice J.B. Koshy and Justice T.R. Ramachandran Nair on Thursday commuted the death sentence awarded to a 25-year-old man for murdering his 17-year-old niece, to life imprisonment.

The court held that even though the murder was brutal in nature, the sentence was being reduced to enable the accused to reform himself.

The first accused, Nigel Joseph Fernandes, had been sentenced to death by the Thiruvananthapuram Sessions Court while his twin brother Trevor Fernandez was sentenced to life for murdering Sandra, daughter of their half-brother who was working in Kuwait customs.

The prosecution case was that the twin brothers hacked Sandra to death using a hatchet and threw her body into a well following an altercation with the accused on August 3, 2004. The accused were staying in the house along with Sandra and her 12-year-old brother, Christopher Gary, at the time of occurrence of the crime. The victim's brother was then a Class IX student.

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