DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX LAW BOARD OF REVENUE TAXES ERNAKULAM Vs. HAJEE M K CHERIYA MAMOO AND BRORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Revenue is the revision petitioner. THE assessee, the respondent, is a dealer in hill produce, having its office at Robinson Road, Kozhikode.

(2.) THE only dispute that requires settlement in the revision is the one pertaining to exemption claimed by the assessee on the turnover of Rs. 5,45,406. 90 relating to the inter-State purchases of pepper, arecanut and ginger from Mahe Produce Traders, Mahe and V. M. Abdul Rehiman, Mahe.

(3.) THE assessee-respondent submitted his explanation to the pre-assessment notice. Relevant portions thereof read : " You have admitted in the notice that we have produced bills of the Mahe dealers and accounted for transport charges from Mahe to Calicut and under ordinary circumstances these would be sufficient materials to establish the purchases. But you say that more clinching evidence is necessary in the face of the abovesaid notorious facts as you have put it. THE so-called notorious facts are only wrong information as stated above and it is improper to build up any adverse conclusion on such unfounded information. Apart from that when you are in receipt of any information, that may at the most give room for you to suspect the genuineness of the bills of the Mahe dealers and our own accounts but at any rate that is not material evidence to conclude that the bills and entries in accounts are bogus. You have not made your own enquiries about the genuineness of the bills and gathered any material evidence to establish that they are not genuine. You have stated that one important piece of evidence is proof of payment of the price to the Mahe dealers and we have not produced any evidence except our own accoutns. Kindly note that our own accounts are the best evidence and we have produced the same. . . . . . . . . . Apart from that absence of the check post seal in some of the bills does not convey any adverse significance. When once the goods are entrusted with the lorry drivers for transport, nobody bothers by which route the goods are transported. In order to avoid the inconvenience of stooping the vehicle at the check posts and keeping them stationary for pretty long time according to the will and pleasure of the inspectors and allowing the goods to be inspected, sometimes by damaging the goods and paying the 'mamools' at times the drivers choose to go by alternative routes. From Mahe to Calicut there are other convenient routes which are only two or three miles long. At Muttungal check post, at that time there was no cross bar across the road and lorry drivers taking away the vehicle through the check post without stopping especially at nights when the watchman on duty in the check post would be fast asleep, was not uncommon feature. THErefore, just because in some bills there was no seal of the Muttungal check post you cannot jump into the conclusion that the bills are not genuine bills or the goods have not been transported. "