JUDGMENT : 1. The petitioner, an assessee under the KVAT Act, failed to file monthly returns from April to July 2016 (2016-2017). Therefore, the authorities passed the Ext.P1 series penalty orders, imposing Rs.10,000/- as penalty. Indeed, later, in September 2018, the petitioner also filed rectification petitions: the Ext.P2 series under Section 66 of the KVAT Act. 2. The petitioner here assails the penalty orders. It has sought this Court to (a) quash the Ext.P1 to P1c penalty orders and (b) to direct the Commercial Tax Officer-I to pass appropriate orders on the Ext.P2 series rectification petitions. 3. The petitioner's counsel now, however, confines her submissions to what she regards as the illegality in the Ext.P1 series penalty orders. According to her, in every other case, the penalty may stretch up to Rs.10,000/-, but under Section 67(1)(c), it ought to be Rs.1,000/-, and nothing more. 4. In response, the learned Government Pleader submits that in other cases, only the maximum has been prescribed with no reference to what could be the minimum. Under Section 67(1)(C), the minimum, too, has been prescribed; it does not mean, she contends, that it should be only Rs.1,000/-. According to her, such an interpretation will render the expression “minimum” otiose. 5. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader. 6. I may, to begin with, examine Section 67(1)(C) and the proviso, which are extracted here: Section 67(1)(c):-[H]as failed to submit any return as required by the provisions of this Act or the rules made there under; “Provided that in the case of item (c) above, a minimum penalty of rupees One Thousand shall be directed to be paid” 7. As rightly contended by the learned Government Pleader, the provision prescribes the minimum. It does not mandate, at the same time, that it should not exceed Rs.1,000/-. I reckon in all other cases, only the maximum has been prescribed. That means the authority under justifiable circumstances may impose no penalty at all. Under Section 67(1)(C)— that is, an assessee failing to file returns—the penalty ought to begin with a minimum Rs.1,000/- and can stretch up to Rs.10,000/-. Under these circumstances, I find no merits in this writ petition; so I dismiss it.