IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. CWP 1577/2005 Date of Decision: 12.11.2009 The Supreme Industries Limited ..........Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others ..........Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE M.M.KUMAR HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH. Present: Mr.KL Goyal,Senior Advocate with Mr.Sandeep Goyal,Advocate for the petitioner. Mr.Piyush Kant Jain,Addl.AG Punjab for respondents. 1. To be referred to the Reporter or not ? 2. Whether the judgement should be reported in the Digest ? M.M.KUMAR,J. This order will dispose of CWP Nos. l577 and 1712 of 2005 as common questions of fact and law are involved in these petitions. Facts are being taken from CWP No.1577 of 2005. The petitioner has approached this Court impugning the order dated 11.12.2004 (Annexure P/12) passed by the Assessing Authority-cum- Excise and Taxation Officer, canceling the exemption granted to the petitioner from payment of sales tax vide order dated 16.4.2001 (Annexure P/7). The aforesaid order was passed on the basis of eligibility certificate issued on 13.3.2001 (Annexure P/5). It has been pointed out by the learned State counsel that under Section 20 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act,1948, the order passed by the Assistant Excise and Taxation CWP 1577/2005 2 Commissioner is appealable and without availing the remedy of appeal the writ petition would not be maintainable. Mr. Goyal, learned counsel for the petitioner states that he may be permitted to withdraw the petitions with liberty to approach the appellate authority. He further states that under Section 20, 60 days' period is provided for filing appeal and since the petition has been pending before this Court, there is delay in approaching the appellate authority. Accordingly, he states that the petitioner would file the appeal within a period of two weeks and no objection with regard to delay in filing of appeal be raised by the respondent-State. It is appropriate to mention that the instant petition was filed on 27.1.2005 which was admitted on 4.5.2005 when the following order was passed which reveals that the learned Additional Advocate General, Punjab was present. The said order reads as under:- “ Rule D.B. List the matter for final disposal on 1.8.2005. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and bearing in mind the fact that the eligibility certificate issued by the Industries Department was clarified vide letter dated 18.11.2004 issued by the General Manager, District Industries Centre, Patiala and the said clarification has not been specifically challenged by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, we are of the view that the petitioner has made out a good case for grant of interim relief. Accordingly, we stay the operation of CWP 1577/2005 3 impugned order dated 11.12.2004 (Annexure P.12). We clarify that in the event of the petitioner failing in this writ petition, it shall be liable to pay the sales-tax on the sales affected by it along with interest , as may be directed by the Court.” In view of the above, we relegate the petitioner to the remedy of filing appeal. If the appeal is filed within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, then the same shall not be dismissed on the ground that there is delay because against the order dated 11.12.2004 the writ petition was preferred on 27.1.2005 which itself was within a period of 60 days. It is well settled that approaching a forum different than the one statutorily provided would not be hit by the delay and the cause of action can still be agitated before the alternative forum. These principles are incorporated in Section 14 of the Limitation Act,1963. We further make it clear that the appellate authority shall decide the matter expeditiously preferably within a period of three months. If an adverse order is passed by the appellate authority the same shall not be given effect to for a period of two weeks so as to enable the petitioner to avail the remedy of further appeal to Tribunal. The writ petitions stand disposed of in the aforesaid terms. (M.M.Kumar) Judge 12.11.2009 (Jaswant Singh) joshi Judge