9911796707
TMI Blog1975 (2) TMI 92X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... showing sales of oil of the aggregate value of Rs. 20,056.73 entered in the said books in the name of the respondents. The Sales Tax Officer wanted to verify whether these transactions were also entered as purchases in the account books of the respondents and, therefore, paid a surprise visit to the respondents' place of business on 12th November, 1962, and seized the respondents' account books. The Sales Tax Officer, however, did not find any entry with respect to these transactions in the account books of the respondents. The Sales Tax Officer thereupon did not accept the account books of the respondents and enhanced the respondents' turnover of sales as appearing in the respondents' cash-books by Rs. 66,184 and correspondingly enhanced t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... them and that the respondents should have produced their account books and cash-books ond their bank pass-books to show that they had not made the alleged purchases. In the course of his order the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax has observed as follows: "They (that is, the respondents) have also not made any request for calling the accountant or a partner of M/s. Badrinarayan Jamnadas for cross-examination as their witness." The above observations made by the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax leave us wondering-whether the particular Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax who heard the appeal at all knew what the principles of evidence are and what was meant by a party's own witness and what was meant by cross-examination. We are al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... only presumption. The Tribunal has pointed out that the suppressed transaction of purchase which might said to have been proved was one of Rs. 20,056.73 from Messrs. Badrinarayan Jamnadas Oil Mills, who were registered dealers, that out of the turnover of the respondents running into about Rs. 13,00,000 not a single transaction was from an unregistered dealer and that the respondents' accounts were closed and adjusted. The Tribunal has further pointed out that these transactions were said to be purchases of oil and that oil could only be purchased from oil mills which would normally be all registered as dealers under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, and that there was, therefore, no scope for the respondents to purchase oil from an unregist ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nference of fact drawn from other known or proved facts. It is undoubtedly true that a best judgment assessment made by a taxing authority must inevitably involve some guesswork, but its sole basis cannot be imagination. The estimate made by the assessing authority in making a best judgment assessment should not be vindictive or capricious, but it should be a bona fide estimate and arrived at on a rational basis. As held by the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Sales Tax, M.P. v. H.M. Esufali H.M. Abdulali[1973] 32 S.T.C. 77 at 82 (S.C.)., there has to be a reasonable nexus between the basis adopted in estimating the turnover and the estimate made. If the basis adopted is a relevant basis, even though the court may think that it is not the m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s and circumstances of this case has been pointed out by the Tribunal in its judgment. The Tribunal Is an appellate body both with respect to the facts and the law. We find here that in arriving at its decision and in drawing the inference, which it did, the Tribunal has acted rationally and logically and that the presumption which it has drawn is one drawn from the facts which were known or proved and not from facts which did not exist, as in the case of the inference drawn by the Sales Tax Officer and the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax. Mr. Sanghvi also relied upon a decision of the Nagpur Bench of this High Court, namely, Hirjee v. State of Maharashtra[1966] 18 S.T.C. 460. We find that that case has no application to the present c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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