IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No. 477 of 2009 DATE OF DECISION: January 13, 2009 Malwa Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd. …Petitioner Versus The State of Punjab and another …Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE H.S. BHALLA Present: Mr. Kashmiri Lal Goyal, Advocate for the petitioner. 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? M.M. KUMAR, J. The petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for restraining the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Barnala-respondent No. 2 from passing any order in pursuance to notice dated 22.9.2008 (P-4). The case of the petitioner is that in pursuance of Section 11(3) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for brevity, ‘the Act’) no assessment could be framed after the C.W.P. No. 477 of 2009 expiry of period of three years to be counted from the last date prescribed for furnishing the last return in respect of any period. The petitioner has filed objection stating that the last date on which period of three years expired is 30.4.2008 and, therefore, no assessment could be framed by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner- respondent No. 2. After hearing learned counsel at a considerable length and perusing the paper book with his able assistance we are of the considered view that once the objection has been raised by the petitioner, respondent No. 2 is under statutory obligation to decide the objection and it is only after rejecting the objection that it could frame assessment. It would obviously mean that the decision on objection has to come first and the assessment could be framed thereafter. We dispose of the petition with the aforementioned observation. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (H.S. BHALLA) January 13, 2009 JUDGE Pkapoor 2