1973 (3) TMI 120

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..... 7 p.m. The salesman in one case and the accountant in another were the persons who were in-charge of the business premises. When they were asked to produce the stock account and the production account, which every dealer has to maintain under the provisions of the Act and the Rules made thereunder, the persons in-charge of the firm categorically stated that there were no such books kept by them in regular course. The persons in custody of the place gave statements to the inspecting officer to that effect and expressed their inability to satisfy immediately whether the stock was in accordance with the purchases and sales effected by them. In those circumstances, the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer of the Inspection Wing gave the challenged no .....

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..... g committed an offence under the Act. In a case where the inspection wing of the commercial taxes department secures first-hand information about certain laches on the part of the dealer in the matter of the maintenance of the prescribed account books, he has two options before him. The first one is to treat him as an offender within the meaning of section 45 of the Act and bring such an offence to the notice of the Presidency Magistrate or a Magistrate of the First Class and bring home the offence to the person concerned. In the instant case, obviously the offence with which the petitioners could be charged is one under section 45(2)(d) which is, no doubt, a general section dealing with wilful acts of contravention of any of the provisions .....

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..... ere has been a violation of the prescriptions under the Act. But in the instant cases, the notices under challenge were served on the very persons who gave the statement admitting that such prescribed account books were not maintained by the firm. It is unusual to expect a person who is a salesman or an accountant to receive notices from the sales tax department as well and on the top of it claim that he is signing the notice for the petitioner-company. If, therefore, the petitioner-company or its partners authorised such salesman or accountant to represent the firm and impliedly allowed them to commit themselves for the firm, then they cannot escape the consequences that naturally flow from such a situation. It is this peculiar aspect in t .....

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