The High Court of Karnataka made these observations whereas dismissing a petition filed by Masturlal Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based textile firm.
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Not furnishing data by an organization below the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, could seem to be a trivial offence, however, in impact, has a significant affect on the method of planning of financial insurance policies of a nation, the High Court of Karnataka has mentioned.
As India is related to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its Special Data Dissemination Standards, and SAARC Social Charter, the hole in data assortment would additionally affect varied worldwide commitments and implementation of nationwide programmes, the court docket mentioned.
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“It is in public domain that Indian statistical system is one of the best systems in the world. The country participates in all the international and regional organisations of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on statistical compliances and international practices. It is, therefore, the necessity of statistical data to be given by every company, as responsible business houses, who have their company on the soil of the nation,” the court docket noticed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations whereas dismissing a petition filed by Masturlal Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based textile firm.
Company was convicted in 2013 for not furnishing data
The firm was prosecuted in 2012 for not furnishing annual data as per Section 15(1) of the Act. In 2013, a Justice of the Peace court docket had convicted the corporate and imposed a wonderful ₹6,000 after the corporate pleaded responsible. At that point, the corporate had mentioned that it couldn’t furnish data as its accounts officer was critically sick, and later succumbed to sickness, and in the identical yr, the corporate’s chairman additionally handed away.
Company is a repeat offender in withholding data
As the corporate didn’t furnish the required data even two years after the conviction, in 2015, the National Sample Survey Office prosecuted the corporate once more below Section 15(2), which mandates that the corporate, after being convicted for the primary violation, could be prosecuted additional if the data just isn’t submitted inside 14 days of conviction. The firm, if discovered responsible below Section 15(2), is responsible for a penalty of up to ₹5,000 per day for delay in submission of data.
When the trial was at a sophisticated stage, in 2022, the corporate knocked on the doorways of the High Court of Karnataka contending that it can’t be prosecuted twice for a similar offence.
Rejecting the corporate’s rivalry, the High Court mentioned it doesn’t quantity to double prosecution for a similar offence, as Section 15(2) treats non-furnishing of data even after conviction as a separate offence.
‘Face wrath of law’
“It becomes imperative for every stakeholder under the Act to furnish its statistics annually, diligently as is required under the law, or to face the wrath of Section 15 of the Act,” the court docket mentioned whereas pointing that assortment of data from sure segments of the commercial sector is essential for framing insurance policies, assembly challenges arising out of liberalisation, globalisation, and many others.
The rigour of the Act can’t be whittled down or diluted to swimsuit the comfort of any particular person or firm, and any supposed issue wouldn’t justify diluting the rigour of the statute, the court docket mentioned.
