IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH S.T.C. No. 3 of 2005 DATE OF DECISION: February 24, 2009 M/s Shah Knitwears …Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and another …Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE H.S. BHALLA Present: Mr. R.L. Batta, Senior Advocate, with Ms. Geeta Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Piyush Kant Jain, Addl. AG, Punjab, for the respondents. 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 dealer has filed the instant petition under Section 22 (2)(b) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for brevity, ‘the Act’) for issuance of direction to the Sales Tax Tribunal-II, Punjab, Chandigarh (for brevity, ‘the Tribunal’), to state the case and refer the questions of law emerging from order dated 17.10.2003, passed by S.T.C. No. 3 of 2005 the Tribunal in Misc. Reference No. 182/2003-04, in respect of the assessment year 1992-93. The dealer has earlier filed an application before the Tribunal under Section 22(1) of the Act for referring various questions of law for adjudication of this Court. Without going into details of factual and legal aspects, we are of the view that interpretation of the statute is involved and there is no decision on the issues raised of this Court. The questions raised in the instant petition are likely to arise in a number of cases and, therefore, it would be just and appropriate to direct the Tribunal to refer the following questions of law for determination of this Court after drawing statement of facts:- 1) Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is correct in holding that the petitioner is not entitled to the claim of deemed assessment under Section 11-E of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 read with Rule 33-B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Rules, 1949 and notification dated 9.7.1999 when the substantive appeals on merits were pending before the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Patiala Division, Patiala, against order dated 29.7.1994, passed by the Assessing Authority, Ludhiana? 2) Whether the Tribunal has properly interpreted Rule 33-B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Rules, 2 S.T.C. No. 3 of 2005 1949 and the notification dated 9.7.1999 in view of the fact that it is well settled that the appeal is in continuance of the original suit and assessment as held in Ruling 90 STC 526, 14 STC 976 and 22 STC 518? The petition stands disposed of in the above terms. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (H.S. BHALLA) February 24, 2009 JUDGE Pkapoor 3