9911796707
TMI Blog1981 (4) TMI 261X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... thin the State and claimed exemption from payment of sales tax on the ground that sales of rice purchased by them from the registered dealers are second sales in the State. While their assessments were pending, the registered dealer filed a return including the various sales made to the petitioners and claimed exemption from sales tax on the sales on the ground that he did not actually sell rice to the petitioners, but merely sold paper bills. The assessing officer issued notices to the petitioners to show cause as to why, on the basis of the statement of the registered dealer, tax should not be levied on the sales made by them. He has also initiated penalty proceedings under section 7-A of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act for havin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pellate Tribunal are unjust and unwarranted and that on its own finding the Appellate Tribunal ought to have allowed the appeals filed by the petitioners. Sri A. Pulla Reddy, the learned counsel for the department, contends that there is no legal evidence enabling any conclusion either in favour of or against the petitioners and that therefore the orders of remand passed by the Appellate Tribunal are sound and proper. All the petitioners are admittedly wholesale dealers and they claimed exemption from payment of sales tax in regard to the sale of rice said to have been purchased from the registered dealer, K.V. Satyanarayana of Yalamanchili. Their claim has been negatived by the department on the ground that K.V. Satyanarayana stated be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d rice to the petitioners as per the bills issued by him. The assessing authority rejected the evidence of K.V. Satyanarayana when he spoke in favour of the petitioners' case merely because he gave a different statement earlier when he filed his return before the assessing authority. His explanation, when examined before the assessing authority, that he made the earlier statement under duress was not accepted merely on suspicion and prejudice. The assessing authority did not give any valid reasons for rejecting the evidence given by him before it. No doubt, K.V. Satyanarayana showed himself to be an unreliable witness when he stated that he made an earlier false statement under threat of departmental authorities but this circumstance cannot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d in rejecting the evidence of the witness on the ground that he is partly unreliable. In the instant case, the statement of K.V. Satyanarayana that he sold only bills and not rice to the petitioners is unsupported by any other evidence. On the other hand, the very maker of that statement asserts that the statement is false. The statement of K.V. Satyanarayana that he sold rice to the petitioners under bills issued by him is lent assurance by considerable documentary evidence, viz., the bills signed and issued by K.V. Satyanarayana and the entries made by the petitioners and K.V. Satyanarayana in their respective account books which are maintained in the usual course of business. Under the circumstances, therefore, the assessing authority a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y Sri P. Venkatarama Reddy, the petitioners would not be able to produce any better evidence. The best evidence which the petitioners can possibly adduce in support of their claim is already available. A remand for the purpose of adducing fresh evidence to explain unambiguous evidence is not warranted under the law. Cases cannot be remanded for further evidence when there is sufficient evidence for proper decision. The further enquiry directed by the Appellate Tribunal, under the circumstances, would be a purposeless exercise and waste of public time. In the state of evidence available on record, there can be little doubt that the petitioners are entitled to the exemption claimed by them in their returns on the ground that the sales of ri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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