Sitaram v. State of Madhya Pradesh

KAPUR, J. -There are two appeals directed against the order of the High Court of Madhya ' . .. -· ' . - . 1962 February Ii. EapurJ~ 1962 Bt.taram •• S14te of M aJli;·a Pradtsh K•purJ. Pradesh rejecting a Reference made by the Ses­ sions Judge against the prosecution of th,-, appel­ lants for contravening the provisions of the C. P . and Berar Sales Tax Act (C. P. XXI of 1947), hereinafter called the 'Act'. A firm of which five brothers including the two appellants were partners Huhrnitted their sales tax returns for the quarters beginning June l, 194i, to the quarters ending December 31, 1951. A complaint was fil1Jd against the p1irtners on July 19, I 95i, on the ground that the returns filed by them were fals!' and the accounts produced wero ·incorrect and therefore an offence under s. 24(1)(h) and (g) of the Act was committed. On December 12, I 9:i8, an obieetion was taken by the accused perFons that under s. 26(2) of the Act, the prosecution could not he instituted as it was barred by time, having been instituted more than three months nfter the commission of the offence. The lParncd JTagiRt.rate dirl not go into the objection on the ground that it was not the proper forum for raising the objection. Four revisions were taken to the 8cssions .Judge who on llfay 4, l 95!l, made a r,,forrncc to the High Court for qmishing tht' proceedings. 13ut tho High Court rejected the refcrenee on the grounrl that a person making a false ,return neither act8 nor purports to act under the Act ancl therefore s. 26(2) is not applicable to him. H is againHt that order that these appeals were brought by Special Leave. In order to decide this question, it is neces­ sary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Aot. Under s. 10 of the Act every dealer is required to furnish a return when called upon to do so and every registered dealer i8 rec1uired to furnish returns by such datc>s as may b1' prescribed. Thl' ap­ pellants arc registe1·<'cl dealern unrl they hn.ve made returns ~nder that section. Section I 5 de:lls with -, . ... 3 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REP01tTS 23 production and inspection of' accounts and s. 24 enumerates the offences under the Act. The alle­ ged offence of the appellants falls under s. 34(1) (b) and (g). i. e. failing without sufficient cause to submit any return· or' furnishing false returns and knowingly producing incorrect accounts, regis­ ters or documents or knowingly furnishing incor­ rect information. Section 26 relates to the 'pro­ tection of persons acting in good faith and limita­ tion for suits and prosecutions. The section when • quoted is as follows : s. 26 (1) "No suit, prosecution or other legal pro­ ceedings shall lie against any servant . of the Government for anything ,which is in good faith done or intended to be done · under this Act or rules made thereunder . (2) No suit shall be instituted against the Government and no prosecution or ~uit shall be instituted against any person in respect of anything done or intended to be done under this Act unless the suit or prosecution .has been instituted within three months from the date of the act complained of." I~or the appellants, it was contended that the words "no prosecution or suit shall be instituted against any person in respect of anything done'" in rnb-s. (2) of s. 26 cover their cases also and they fall within the words "any person". The respon­ dent's submission on this point was that the two sub-sections of s. 26 should be read together and the intention of the Legislature was to give protec­ tion to Government servants in regard to pro­ secrrtions or other legal proceedings. That, in our opinion, is not· what the words used in sub-s. (2) mean. They are words of wider import and would · cover cases of all persons including persons other than Government servants. There are no words nistricting the .meaning of "an1 person" aqd nq 1962 Sitar.Jm '.,~ Stale of Madhya Pradesh Kapur-J,. Jg62 Sitoram v. . S141e of M atlhJa P14desh KapurJ. 24 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1962) SUPP. reason has been shown why those wor<lR should not include the appellant.s. The ground on which the High Court rejected the Reference was that in its opinion the 11ppel­ lants neither acted nor purported to act under any of the proviRions of the Act when they filed false returns or produced false accounts and in fal't they were rendering themRelvcs liable to puniRhment under the provisions of s. 24 of the Act. It obser­ ved as follows :- "The test whether an aot is dont• or intend-' cd to be <lone under a ccrt:•in l:tw might well be whether the person who committed it. can, if challenged, reasonably justify his act. under any provision contained in that law". This opinion is, in our view, not ;;ust:iinalile. When the appellants submitted their returns they did so under s. JO of th<' Act and when they produced their account~ they did so under s. 15 of the Act. Therefore hoth the making of the reh;rns ancl pro­ duction of the accounts 1vero done under the Act and cannot be said to b" outside the prov is ions of the Act. In our opinion thn High Court wa8 in error in rojecting the Refere11ce. 'l'he appeals arn t.here­ fore allowed, the order of the High Court is set aside and the proceedings in the tri;d court a~c quashed. ApjJC<ll8 al/u1ced.