VIJAYA STORES Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that arises in this Tax Revision Case turns on the interpretation to be placed on S.39 of the Kerala General Sales tax Act, 1963, for short, the Act. The relevant part of that section is in these terms: -

(2.) This Tax Revision is by an assessee regarding whose turnover there has been an estimate for the assessment year 1965-66. A note book containing , entries for the period from 23rd April 1965 to 28th May 1965 was discovered. This note book revealed a turnover of Rs. 80,218.22. The Sales tax Officer was of the view that half of this turnover was relatable to the entries in the regular account books. He therefore estimated the turnover on, that basis and found that the profit made worked out at 8.7 per cent of that turnover. He felt that the profit should be 10 per cent and on that basis worked out the turnover and found the addition to be made to the turnover was Rs. 45,654.73. The assessee appealed and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner came to the conclusion that the estimate of 10 per cent profit was unjustified. He worked out the turnover on the basis that the profit would be only 5 per cent and thus added only Rs. 22,823.00 to the turnover. From this decision of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, no appeal was taken by the department before the Tribunal. The assessee however appealed and in that appeal, the Tribunal held that the additions made both by the Sales tax Officer and the Appellate Assistant Commissioner were not enough and directed an addition of a sum of Rs. 80,218.22 to the turnover.

(3.) In the absence of counsel for the revision petitioner we requested Sri. T. L. Viswanatha Iyer to assist the Court and we are grateful to him for arguing the case and for citing the relevant decisions. Before we deal with these decisions, we would like to make some general observations.