1970 (1) TMI 68

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..... Officer, Banda, passed an ex parte assessment order against the assessee for the assessment year 1958-59. The assessee made an application for setting aside the ex parte assessment order. The Sales Tax Officer was satisfied with the cause shown for the absence of the assessee, and on 17th June, 1963, set aside the ex parte assessment order. The Commissioner of Sales Tax felt aggrieved and filed a .....

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..... udge (Revisions) was justified in exercising suo motu powers?" Section 30 of the Act authorises the assessing authority to set aside an ex parte assessment order and reopen the case if it is satisfied that the assessee did not receive notice or was prevented by sufficient cause from appearing on the date fixed. It would be seen that though the grounds upon which the assessing authority can reopen .....

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..... 3. Reopening of the proceedings would mean that the Sales Tax Officer would have been disabled to pass a fresh order because of the expiry of the period of limitation of four years. This in our opinion was a relevant circumstance for considering the question whether the ex parte order should be set aside by the Sales Tax Officer. The assessee had an alternative remedy of filing an appeal against t .....

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..... ng the relief under section 30. In our opinion, the submission that the circumstance that the assessment would become time-barred is not relevant is not correct. As the assessing authority had failed to take into consideration the fact that as a result of the order passed by it under section 30, a fresh assessment would be barred, the Judge (Revisions) was justified in allowing the revision applic .....

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..... held that the Revising Authority was not justified in exercising its suo motu power. The two questions raised by the assessee may be questions of law, but as the answer to these questions is obvious and admits of no doubt whatsoever, we do not think that it is a fit case in which we should call for a statement of the same. The application is dismissed with costs which we assess at Rs. 50. Appl .....

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