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TMI Blog1968 (2) TMI 93X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nover for the year April 1, 1955, to March 31, 1956. The Commercial Tax Officer, Kolar, estimated the turnover at Rs. 2,20,000 and levied a tax of Rs. 2,525. The assessee appealed to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Bangalore Division, and filed a statement of purchases of groundnuts before the Deputy Commissioner. The Deputy Commissioner remanded the case with the following observations: "The order of the assessing officer does not indicate if this statement filed by the assessee is correct and he does not seem to have examined the accounts produced by the assessee. With a view to know the correct accounts, it is necessary to go into the accounts of the assessee once again to fix up the correct turnover. Under these circumstan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ospectively amending section 40 of the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1957, held on October 22, 1962, that the assessment was not barred by limitation. He, however, found that the Commercial Tax Officer had not given a notice in writing to the assessee how and why he was not satisfied with the correctness of the accounts and the basis on which he proposed to make the assessment. The Commissioner accordingly set aside the assessment and remanded the case once again to the Commercial Tax Officer to follow the procedure for making the best judgment assessments and pass fresh orders according to law. The assessee then filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for quashing the order passed by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes mainly on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ore [1962] 13 S.T.C. 873 opportunity to study the point. Moreover, this Court does not decide constitutional points unless it is absolutely essential to do so. We may now give our reasons why we have come to the above conclusion. The relevant statutory provisions of the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1948 -hereinafter referred to as the 1948 Act-are as follows: Section 3 is the charging section and provides, inter alia, that "subject to the provisions of this Act, every dealer shall pay for each year a tax on his total turnover for such year." "Year" is defined to mean "the financial year", and "dealer" is defined to mean "any person who carries on the business of buying or selling goods". Section 10 deals with registration of dealers, and section ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... have elected to be assessed by the method described in rule 20 shall, on or before the first day of August in every year, submit to the assessing authority of the area in which his principal place of business is situated a return in Form VIII showing the actual gross and net turnover for the preceding year and the amounts by way of tax or taxes actually collected during that year. Every dealer not liable to submit a return under rule 12, who has a net turnover of not less than Rs. 10,000 in any year, shall unless he has elected to be assessed by the method described in rule 20 submit to the assessing authority of the area in which his principal place of business is situated a return in Form VIII showing the actual gross and net turnover f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s necessary. (2) If for any reason any tax or licence fee has been assessed at too low a rate in any year, the assessing authority or the licensing authority, as the case may be, may, at any time within the year or the two years next succeeding that to which the tax or licence fee relates, revise the assessment or the licence fee after issuing a notice to the dealer or licensee and after making such enquiry as he considers necessary....." We have already mentioned that the assessee filed four returns for the year 1955-56, and the Commercial Tax Officer passed an assessment order. The learned counsel for the assessee contends that the Commercial Tax Officer, when he passes an order of assessment on remand, would be assessing that turnover ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... proceedings before the Commissioner start factually when a return is made or when a notice is issued to him either under section 10(3) or under section 11(2) of the Act." He then observed that a case would be pending till a final order of assessment was made by the highest Tribunal or Court under the Act. He finally concluded at page 453: "For the foregoing reasons we hold that a statutory obligation to make a return within a prescribed time does not proprio vigore initiate the assessment proceedings before the Commissioner; but the proceedings would commence after the return was submitted and would continue till a final order of assessment was made in regard to the said return." Applying the above reasoning to the facts of this case it f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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