THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.RAVI SHANKAR WRIT PETITION No. 7918 of 2011. ORDER: (Per Goda Raghuram, J) The Commercial Tax Officer, Benz Circle, Vijayawada has filed this writ petition inter alia aggrieved by the inaction of the respondents, in particular the 2nd respondent in clearing the arrears of tax due to the petitioner department and for a direction to the 1st respondent bank to remit the tax dues of the 2nd respondent to the Revenue in view of the provisions of Section 16-C of the A.P.G.S.T Act, 1957 (for short ‘the 1957 Act’); in respect of tax, penalty, interest and other amounts which are the first charge under a said provision. The 2nd respondent is a dealer under the provisions of the A.P. VAT Act, 2005 and C.S.T. Act, 1956 and in the business of manufacture and sale of pesticides. The dealer fell in arrears of tax for the years 1998-99, 2000-01 in an amount of Rs. 36,42,032/-. The assessment in respect of these years has become final, as no appeals were preferred by the dealer. The 2nd respondent was also liable to tax dues of Rs. 8,37,576/- for the assessment year 2002-03 which was however questioned and is pending consideration before this Court in W.P.No. 16932 of 2003 as pleaded in the affidavit in the writ petition. It is further pleaded that since the 2nd respondent is also liable to pay tax to an amount of Rs. 9,97,499/- for the months of December, 2009, January, 2010, February, 2010, December, 2010 and January, 2011, repeated reminders were issued to the said dealer to clear the arrears of tax but the same were not paid. Consequently, the DCTO-II, Benz Circle, Vijayawada issued Form-IV being a demand prior to attachment of land, on 15.3.2011 to which also there was no response. While so, the 1st respondent bank published a notification in a Telugu newspaper on 24.2.2011 for sale of the assets of the 2nd respondent for realisation of its dues from the said respondent. The writ petitioner on 10.3.2011 addressed the 1st respondent intimating that the liability of tax, penalty, interest and any other sums payable by the 2nd respondent are a first charge on the property of the said respondent, under Section 16-C of the 1957 Act. The writ petition is filed at that stage of the matter for a direction to the respondents to pay up the tax and other liabilities to the State. On instructions, Sri.Srinivas Chakrala, learned Counsel for the 1st respondent bank states that pursuant to the sale notification dt. 24.2.2011 issued by the bank, no sale has taken place, as an arrangement was entered with the 2nd respondent for clearing the liabilities to the Bank. Having regard to the provisions of Section 16-C of the 1957 Act, the validity of which has been upheld by a learned Division Bench of this Court in 51 APSTJ 117, the liability of the 2nd respondent towards tax, penalty, interest and other amounts due under the provisions of the 1957 Act, A.P. VAT Act, 2005 and CST Act, 1956 constitute a first charge on the assets of the 2nd respondent and liability of the said respondent to the 1st respondent bank, be it under a mortgage, prior or subsequent to the liability of the 2nd respondent to the State, shall be subject to the charge. As the 1st respondent bank has not in ant event proceeded with the sale of the 2nd respondent’s assets, the State is always at liberty to pursue appropriate proceedings available for recovery of the tax dues, in accordance with law. The writ petition has not been filed by the State. The Commercial Tax Officer has filed the writ petition, who is neither the State nor an instrumentality of the State per se. The petitioner is only a State actor. Hence, the writ petition is not maintainable under the title in which it is presented. With the above observation and for the reasons above, the writ petition is dismissed. There shall however be no order as to costs. ______________________ GODA RAGHURAM, J _______________________ N.RAVI SHANKAR, J 10.10.2011. KRB. THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.RAVI SHANKAR WRIT PETITION No. 7918 of 2011. ORDER: (Per Goda Raghuram, J) DT. 10.10.2011.