Sivanand Steels Limited vs State of Tamil Nadu

Jayasimha Babu, J.—The Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Madras has, by the impugned order which concerns the assessment

year 1987-88, accepted the enhancement petition filed by the State in the appeal which the assessees had filed against the order of the Appellate

Assistant Commissioner. The Tribunal has held that the assessing officer has erred in accepting the ""D"" forms issued by the I.C.F. in respect of the

turnover of Rs. 13,57,432 and C form issued by the Bharath Earth Movers Limited in respect of the turnover of Rs. 1,44,313.

It is the grievance of the assessee that no opportunity was given to produce the documents to establish that the orders had been placed by the

Bharath Earth Ltd. acting as to agent on behalf of the Government of India and therefore, the D form issued by the designated officer of the I.C.F.

in respect of these supplies were valid, and were required to be acted upon. We find substance in this contention.

In respect of the C form issued by the Bharath Movers Ltd. which has been rejected as defective on the ground that the purchase order was not

mentioned therein, counsel''s grievance is that opportunity should have been given to have that defect rectified especially when the documents had

been acted upon by the assessing officer.

Though the Tribunal has power to entertain enhancement petition and to enhance the assessment, that power be exercised with considerable

care and caution so as to prevent any injustice being given to the assessee, who in the normal course, is entitled to assume that the order of

assessment in so far as it is in favour of the assessee, will not be interfered with except for good and sufficient reasons. The documents which had

been scrutinised and accepted are the documents which had been accepted by the assessing officer and if they are to be reopened before the

Tribunal, adequate opportunity should be provided to the assessee to produce the requisite documents or to correct the errors and omissions in the

documents if such errors and omissions were bona fide and are capable of being corrected.

The impugned order of the Tribunal is therefore set aside and the matter is remanded to the Tribunal for fresh disposal in accordance with law,

and in the light of the observation made in this order.

Matter remanded.