STATE OF ANDHRA Vs. BELLAMKONDA VENKATA SUBBAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will govern T.R.C. Nos. 32 and 33 of 1956. The respondent in Tax Revision Case No. 32 of 1956 was charged for wilful submission of untrue returns and for not keeping a true and correct account as required by section 13 of the Madras General Sales Tax Act. The prescribed authority purporting to act under section 16(b) of the Act proposed a sum of Rs. 940 for the composition of the offence and this was confirmed by the Commercial Tax Officer on appeal. The dealer appealed to the Tribunal urging that the composition amount was excessive.

(2.) IN T.R.C. No. 33 of 56 the offence was for failing to include particular items in the turnover and suppressing in the turnover of Rs. 10,000. In the appeal preferred by the dealer against the order of the prescribed authority fixing the amount of composition, the Tribunal reduced the amount to Rs. 500.

(3.) THE learned Government Pleader confined his arguments to the sole question about the entertainment of the appeal against an order under section 16 of the Act and urged that a composition as envisaged in section 16 of the Act from the nature of it was a bilateral act under which an offer is made by the dealer and the same is accepted by the prescribed authority. He submitted that there could not be an appeal against such an act. He contended that this was no pronouncement of a finding of an authority or tribunal against which the aggrieved party could prefer an appeal.