1974 (4) TMI 81

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..... Shahjahanpur Circle, requiring the petitioner to show cause why penalty under section 15-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, be not imposed. The petitioner, M/s. Ram Dayal Chhotey Lal, is a partnership-firm registered under the U.P. Sales Tax Act and deals in iron, steel, cement and iron goods. The dispute in this case is about an alleged deliberate concealment by the petitioner of its turnover .....

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..... assessing authority to impose penalty on an assessee, inter alia, if he is satisfied that the assessee has concealed the particulars of its turnover or has deliberately furnished inaccurate particulars of such turnover. The case of the petitioner is that there was absolutely no material before the Sales Tax Officer on the basis of which he could be satisfied that it had concealed the particulars .....

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..... jected and it had been assessed on a higher turnover. It is not necessary for us to recapitulate the reasons why the petitioner's books were held to be unreliable and for purposes of this petition it may be taken that there was good reason for rejecting them and to make a best judgment assessment. The question that remains to be considered is whether merely because there was some defect in the ass .....

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..... e that it would not be safe to rely upon them, thereby enabling the Sales Tax Officer to make a best judgment assessment and to assess its turnover at an amount higher than that disclosed in the return. In such a case, higher amount of tax is demanded from the assessee not because there was concealment or furnishing of wrong particulars in the return, but because the assessee did not maintain its .....

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..... Tax Officer could have reason to believe that the assessee had concealed any part of its turnover or any particulars furnished by it in the return was wrong. Accordingly, he had no jurisdiction to issue the impugned notice. If the Sales Tax Officer has some other material in his possession on the basis of which he could be satisfied that the particulars of the turnover disclosed by the assessee we .....

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