S KRISHNADEVARAYA Vs. ASSISTANT SALES TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition can be disposed of on one short ground. It arises in this way :- The petitioner was provisionally assessed with tax in respect of the sale transactions of his business ending with 31st March, 1955. He was given notice on 21st March, 1955, calling upon him to pay the amount of the said assessment. The petitioner's case is - and that case has not been disputed before us - that prior to such assessment he was not required to furnish either an advance estimate of his turnover for the year, or periodical returns of the actual turnover. At the said date there was no provision in the Mysore Sales Tax Act, 1948, for making provisional assessment. In August, 1955, an amending Act, being Act No. 17 of 1955 came into existence. Section 12 of the said Act provides as follows :-

(2.) THUS it appears that by the validation section of this Act the said provisional assessment, which was not justified by the principal Act, was sought to be validated.

(3.) IN answer to the said contention the learned advocate for the respondent urged that section 4 of the amending Act gives a discretion to the authorities concerned to determine the provisional assessment either on the basis of the estimate or returns furnished by the dealer or on the basis of the transactions of the dealer during the previous year. That being so, it was optional on the part of the assessing authority to require a dealer to furnish an advance estimate of his turnover or the periodical returns of the actual turnover. According to the learned advocate, the authorities are not bound to require him to furnish such estimate and may proceed merely on the basis of the transactions of the dealer in the previous year. In my opinion, this contention of the learned advocate for the respondent cannot be accepted as sound. Before I deal with the same I should mention that no rules required to be prescribed by the said section 4 of the amending Act regarding the advance estimate of the turnover for the year or periodical returns of the actual turnover to be furnished by the assessee have yet been framed. Therefore, the authorities cannot require a dealer, even if they so want, to furnish an advance estimate of his turnover for the year or periodical returns of the actual turnover and they ave no other choice but to make a provisional assessment only on the basis of the transactions of the dealer in the previous year. The net result is that the section as contemplated cannot be given effect to in the absence of such rules.