9911796707
TMI Blog1967 (7) TMI 116X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, repealed the earlier Act and commenced to operate from Ist April, 1959. Disputing the turnover of Rs. 2, 91,187.95, the assessee filed an appeal in respect of it before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, who Is, by section 31 of the new Act, constituted as the appellate authority. This officer found a case for enhancement of the turnover, and, after notice calling for objections, enhanced the turnover fixing it at a sum of Rs. 19,56,500. He overruled the assessee's contention that he had no jurisdiction to enhance. The assessee, in his further appeal to the Tribunal under section 36 of the Act, however, succeeded on that point; the Tribunal being of the view that, as held in D ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Commercial Tax Officer from an order of assessment and a further appeal to the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. These appeals could be preferred only by the assessee and not by the revenue. Where no appeal had been filed and the time for filing had expired, the Commercial Tax Officer, above him the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and at the top the Board of Revenue were each invested with powers of revision which could be exercised on an application or suo motu. It was settled by decisions of this Court that in the appeals filed by an assessee the relative appellate authority had no power to enhance the turnover. If the revenue felt that such a course was necessary, it could do so through revisional powers entrusted to these officers ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y or protection which the assessee had under the 1939 Act so as to save the assessment made by the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, the primary assessing authority, from being enhanced by the exercise of the appellate power by the Commercial Tax Officer, is a vested right, which cannot be interfered with or in any way impaired having regard to the specific provision of section 61(1) of the Madras Act 1 of 1959." But having said that, the Court was of the view: "We cannot accede to the contention of the learned counsel for the respondent that any vested right accrued to the assessee on the date of the first assessment order by the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer ensuring against further assessment at the instance of the State by any appellat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was transferred to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner under section 61(2) of the new Act. This officer enhanced the turnover while disposing the appeal. The same Division Bench which decided Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes v. Sri Swami and Company[1962] 13 S.T.C. 468. held that the assessee had a vested right at the time when the 1959 Act came into force to prevent the Commercial Tax Officer from enhancing the assessment in the course of the appeal preferred by him but there was at the same time the peril of the Commercial Tax Officer who had revisional power of making an order prejudicial to the assessee in exercise of such revisional power. But the Court was of the view that the peril effectively disappeared, when under the 195 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ffect of the words "as if this Act had not been passed". The remedy so preserved for the assessee is related to the appellate powers as contemplated by the 1939 Act. We are not, in this case, called upon to decide the effect of dropping the Commercial Tax Officer and bringing into existence the post of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. What will be the consequence of it on the appeal itself to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner from an order passed prior to Ist April, 1959, is a different matter. We are only concerned with the limited question whether in an appeal like that, it is open to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner to enhance the turnover. If the appellate power is to be exercised as if this Act (the 1959 Act) had not been p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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