iminal Appeals Nos 146 and 147 of 60
Appeals by special leave from the judgment and order dated February 11 1960 of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Criminal Revisions Nos
270 to 274 of 1959
G C Mathur for the appellants
I N Shroff for the respondents
February 5
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by KAPUR J
There are two appeals directed against the order of the High Court of Madhya 22 Pradesh reiecting a Reference made by the Sessions Judge against the prosecution of
the appellant 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 submitted their sales tax returns for the quarters beginning June 1 1947 to the quarters ending December 31 1951
A complaint was filed against the partners on July 19 1957 on the ground that the returns filed by them were false and the accounts produced were incorrect and therefore an offence under section 241b and g of the Act was committed
On December 12 1958 an objection was taken by the accused
persons that under section 262 of the Act the prosecution could not be instituted as it was barred by time having been instituted more than three months after the commission of the offence
The learned Magistrate did 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 Sessions Judge who on May 4 1959 made a reference to the High Court for quashing the proceedings But the High Court rejected the reference on the ground that a person making a false return neither acts nor purports to act under the Act and therefore section 262 is not applicable to him
It is against that order that these peals were brought by Special Leave
In order to decide this question it is necessary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Act
Under section 10 of the Act every dealer is required to furnish a return when called upon to do so and every registered dealer is required to furnish returns by such dates as may be prescribed
The ap pellants are registered dealers and they have made returns under that section
Section 15 deals with 23 production and inspection of accounts and section 24 enumerates the offenses under the Act
The alleged offence of the appellants falls under is
341 b and g
failing without sufficient use to submit any return or furnishing false returns and knowingly producing incorrect accounts registers or documents or knowingly furnishing incorrect information
Section 26 relates to the protection of persons acting in good faith and limitation for suits and prosecutions
The section when quoted is as follows section 26 1 No suit prosecution or other legal proceedings 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 suit 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
 For the appellants it was contended that the words no prosecution or suit shall be instituted against any person in respect of anything done in sub section
2 of section 26 cover their cases also and they fall within the words any person
The respondent s submission on this point was that the two sub sections of section 26 should be read together and the intention of the Legislature was to give protection to Government servants in regard to prosecutions or other legal proceedings
That in our opinion is not hat the words used in sub section
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 restricting the meaning of any person and no 24 reason has been shown why those words should not include the appellants
The ground on which the High Court rejected the Reference was that in its opinion the appellants neither acted nor purported to act under any of the provisions of the Act when they filed false returns or produced false accounts and in fact they were rendering
themselves liable to punishment under the provisions of section 24 of the Act
It observed as follows  The test whether an act is done or intended to be done under a certain law 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 sustainable
When the appellants submitted their returns they did so under section 10 of the Act and when they produced their accounts they did so under section 15 of the Act
Therefore both the making of the returns and production of the accounts were done under the Act and cannot be said to be outside the provisions of the Act
In our opinion the High Court was in error in rejecting the Reference
The appeals are therefore allowed the order of the High Court is set aside aid the proceedings in the trial court are quashed
Appeals allowed


Summary:
The appellants submitted their returns of sales tax
More than three months afterwards a complaint was filed against them under section 241b and g of the C P and Berar Sales Tax Act  alleging that the returns filed Were false and that the accounts produced were incorrect
They contended that the prosecution was barred by section 262 of the Act which provided that no prosecution shall be instituted against any person in respect of anything done or intended to be done under the Act unless it was instituted within three months from the date of the act complained of
Held that the prosecution was barred by section 262 of the Act
The words any person in section 262 were words of wide import and included the appellants
There was no reason to restrict them to Government servants
Both the making of the return and the production of the accounts were acts done under the Act the return being filed under section 10 and the accounts being produced under section 15 of the Act
Section 262 was thus clearly applicable to the case