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TMI Blog1972 (9) TMI 121X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e State of Madras on the basis of the investigation made by the special departmental staff, and (2) a turnover of Rs. 41,448 amounting to three times of the value of the stock discrepancy noticed on inspection. The appellants went in appeal to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, who reduced the total addition from Rs. 12,29,750.08 to Rs. 14,420. The Board of Revenue, exercising its special powers under section 34 of the Act, called for and examined the relevant assessment and appellate records and found that the matter required a further and fuller investigation. It, therefore, directed the Deputy Commissioner, Intelligence, to make such further enquiries, as considered necessary to find out whether Rs. 12,29,750.08 represented purchase ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e a roving enquiry in the matter especially when the assessing and appellate authorities have examined the matter thoroughly by examining the relevant witnesses and perusing the connected records, and that the witnesses who have been already examined by the assessing and appellate authorities should not have been re-examined for the purpose of making a fresh appraisal of their evidence by the Board. It was also contended that the revision of assessment on the appellant-firm after the firm was dissolved is invalid in law. The appellants also challenge the order of the Board of Revenue on merits contending that the facts and circumstances of the case do not warrant the interference by the Board with the order of the appellate authority. Bef ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ty without the appellants being given an opportunity to cross-examine those persons, proceeded to consider the documents and other records available in the case. Though the appellate authority in its order states that Balraj and Goodalingam appeared before it and deposed in a detailed manner in respect of all matters on 15th December, 1962, it is clear from a perusal of its files that the said Balraj and Goodalingam were not examined in the presence of the assessing authority or the departmental staff when the appeal was taken up for hearing, but it has taken certain statements from those persons in its chambers a few days before the date of the hearing of the appeal. The statements taken in those circumstances from those two persons had be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the assessing authority and that both sides should be given an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses. As per the directions of the Board of Revenue, the Deputy Commissioner, after notice to the appellants and the department, examined certain witnesses as court witnesses giving opportunity to the appellants and the assessing authority to cross-examine them. He also examined two witnesses tendered by the appellants and one witness tendered by the assessing authority. After analysing the evidence of the various witnesses who have been subjected to cross-examination, both by the appellants and the assessing authority, the Deputy Commissioner submitted a report as follows: "The result of the enquiry therefore reveals that the order of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tain persons. The appellate authority relied on certain other ex Parte statements made by the same persons before him and came to a different conclusion. It is for this reason the Board of Revenue felt that those persons have to be examined in the presence of the appellants as well as the departmental staff, and their actual evidence as subjected to cross-examination should be considered for finding out the nature of the transactions. It cannot, therefore, be said that the Board of Revenue cannot cause the examination of the same persons who have given ex Parte statements which have been considered by the assessing and appellate authorities one way or the other. We are, therefore, of the view that the Board of Revenue has not acted without ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... alers in Kerala State nor were they assessed to agricultural income-tax under the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act. The assessing authority accepted the appellants' case wherever the transport charges are shown to have been paid for bringing the goods from Kerala State to Madras State. In other cases the vouchers produced by the appellants were held to be bogus. In the course of the evidence V.K. Balraj, one of the dealers from whom the appellants are alleged to have purchased cardamom, specifically states that he is not doing business in cardamom, that he merely issued bills at the request of the appellants and other cardamom dealers in Bodi, that even the registration certificates in his name had been obtained by the appellants and othe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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