9911796707
TMI Blog2003 (10) TMI 611X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rity is correct, what has happened is that turnover has escaped assessment. Section 18 of the Assam Act, 1993 has contemplated a proceeding for determination of escaped turnover to make the same exigible to tax. The power to initiate a proceeding to determine escaped turnover is vested on the assessing officer and therefore, recourse to the impugned notice and the power u/s 36(1) of the Act of 1993 on basis thereof cannot be held to be justified. The argument advanced on behalf of the State that the present challenge is premature has to be negatived inasmuch as submission to the jurisdiction of an authority would only be justified if the authority concerned is legally empowered to initiate and conduct the proceeding in question. As the revi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the authority for cancellation of the aforesaid best judgment assessment and the Superintendent of Taxes, Oral. i.e., the assessing authority, asked the petitioner to appear before him on April 19, 1993 with full records of all transactions made in course of its business in respect of the periods in question. The petitioner complied with the said requirement imposed by the assessing authority and thereafter by an order dated May 19, 1993 and May 20, 1993 the assessing authority reassessed the petitioner-firm by invoking section 17(3) of the Act of 1947 read with section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. Thereafter, the impugned notice dated September 23, 1993 was issued under section 36(1) of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iction meaning thereby that either the assessment has been made without jurisdiction or the same has been made with material irregularity or illegality in exercise of jurisdiction. Learned counsel has further argued that an assessment/order passed by a lower authority may be erroneous in the context of the ordinary meaning of the said expression. However, the same would not make the assessment/order amenable to correction in exercise of suo motu power of revision unless an error of jurisdiction, i.e., a jurisdictional error had been committed. In the instant case, the assessments of the writ petitioner for the period in question were made after due scrutiny of the documents produced by the assessee pursuant to the requisitions made by the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the learned Government counsel has argued that this Court ought not to exercise its discretionary power to issue a writ in favour of the writ petitioner. On the merits of the case, the argument of the learned Advocate is that there are sufficient materials in possession of the revisional authority which would justify the issuance of the impugned notice and therefore, no interference is called for. 6.. The rival submissions advanced by the parties have been duly taken note of. In case of Rajendra Singh [1990] 79 STC 10 a division Bench of this Court has clearly held that the expression "erroneous" as appearing in section 21 of the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976 which is in pari materia with section 36(1) of the Assam Act of 1993 would mean th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er. The required correction, if any, has to be made by recourse to other modes within the four corners of the statute. 7.. Coming to the second argument advanced on behalf of the writ petitioner, it must be noticed that the apex Court in the case of State of Kerala v. K.M. Cheria Adbulla and Company reported in [1965] 16 STC 875, reliance on which has been placed on behalf of the petitioner, has clearly held that while it would not be correct to say that in exercise of the revisional power, the authority would not be competent to make an enquiry beyond the record of the proceedings sought to be revised, the power to make such an enquiry must necessarily be understood, in the context of the scheme of the Act. While exercising such powers an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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