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TMI Blog1989 (8) TMI 346X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provision made in the form of a proviso to sub-section (2) for relaxation by the Commissioner of Sales Tax in respect of any class of manufacturer whose aggregate turnover in an assessment year does not exceed five lakh rupees. With this power to relax we are not herein concerned. 2. The object behind the provision contained in Section 12 (2) is that there may be verification made of the production of a commodity in a particular assessment year. The provision aims at preventing the dealer from suppressing or concealing the true position regarding sale and production - Commissioner of Sales Tax v. M/s. Jain Sudh Vanaspati Ltd., 1988 UPTC 792. There is no dispute on the point that the maintenance of the manufacturing account is mandatory ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... chnical error, or, in other words in case where books of account are said that this is due to a mere technical error. The evidentiary value which would otherwise attach to accounts kept, kept in the regular course is eroded by reason of a serious lacuna, namely, the non-compliance to sub-section (2). In Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Hindon Engineering Co., 1985 UPTC 1202, this Court in our view, rightly observed : In the case of a manufacturer, non-maintenance of manufacturing account is not a technical error but a very serious defect, because in the absence of manufacturing account the correctness of the turnover cannot be ascertained in any way. An assessee is required to maintain books that may furnish the verification and if proper v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssessment made or the basis of the facts and circumstances of the case. The answer to the question would be easy to find if we bear in mind the well-settled proposition that the rejection of accounts and assessment to the best of judgment are two separate and distinct processes which ought not to be mixed up. The Supreme Court in Raghubar Mandal Harihar Mandal v. State of Bihar, (1957) 8 STC 770, laid down : But he is not entitled to make a pure guess and make an assessment without reference to any evidence or any material at all there must be something more than bare suspicion to support the assessment. When the returns and the books of account are rejected, the assessing officer must make an estimate and to that extent he must make a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssed or materials adverse to the assessee have not been found in the survey, then normally the disclosed turnover of the assessee should be accepted These are not authorities for the proposition that upon the rejection of the books of account due to non-maintenance of manufacturing account, the assessing authority is not to look around for other relevant material, if any, and proceed straight way instead, to accept the disclosed turnover as an automation. It would be a mistake to read such a view in these citations. 10 In M/s. Shishupal Singh Sheodan Singh v. C. S. T., 1985 UPTC 345, it was re-affirmed that once the books of account have been rejected, the best judgment assessment has to be passed and the same can be quashed only on the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Pilot Shoe Factory (supra) the observations made by the Division Bench, in so far as relevant, are : We are also unable to accept the contention of the learned Standing Counsel that merely because the books of accounts of the assessee are rejected as unreliable, the turnover returned by the assessee must necessarily be rejected and that such turnover should be estimated at a higher figure than that returned by the assessee. In spite of such rejection of the assessee's books of accounts, whether the turnover returned by him should be accepted or whether a higher turnover should be estimated by the assessing authority, must depend upon the facts and circumstances of each case. 13. It is, true, thus, as also laid down by the Divis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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