MADRAS RUBBER FACTORY LTD Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The judgment of the court was delivered by Gopalan Nambiyar, C. J. -- These Tax Revision Cases have been referred to a Full Bench to consider the correctness of the Division Bench ruling of this Court in Kassim Kannu v. State of Kerala (26 STC 530), particularly, in view of the later Division Bench ruling in C. C. Transport Company v. The State of Kerala (40 STC 444). The question involved is regarding the scope of the revisional jurisdiction under the Sales Tax Act, and Whether in exercising the same, it is open to the revisional authority to trench upon the power and jurisdiction of getting at the escaped turnover and bringing the same to tax 'or' assessment.

(2.) Counsel for the assessee contended that the revisional power under S.35 of the Act cannot be exercised for the purposes of getting at escaped income for which remedy is provided by S.19 of the Act; and that in exercising the power under S.35, it would not be permissible to trench upon the power provided under S.19 of the Act. It was contended that this position has been well recognised and well settled by judicial decisions. Before examining these decisions, we shall extract the relevant sections of the Sales Tax Act, 1963.

(3.) In the face of these statutory provisions sketching the ambit of the respective powers, and as a matter of first impression, there appears to be no bar or inhibition against getting at escaped income in exercise of the revisional power, so long as the grounds for exercise of that powers are made out, viz., that the order is vitiated by illegality, irregularity or impropriety. This is the view that has been taken in more than one decision of the Supreme Court and of this and other High Courts. We are of the opinion that the contrary view which is reflected in at least one of the Division Bench rulings of this Court and in some of the other decisions, cannot be sustained