# THE COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX, U.P v. MIS. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (P) LTD. LUCKNOW

- **Citation:** [1973] 2 S.C.R. 625
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1972-10-10
- **Bench:** K. S. Hegije, P. Jaganmohan Reddy, ?.. Kiianna
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/the-commissioner-of-sales-tax-u-p-v-mis-bhagwan-industries-p-ltd-lucknow-5882
- **Pages:** 11

## Headnote

U.P. Sales Tax Act and Rules, s. 21--Ex-oarte assessment-Notice· for
assessment of escaped turnover-When can be issued-'Reason to believe•,
scope of.
For the assessment year 1957-58, the assessee (respondent) was assessed to mies tax, under the U.P. Sales Tax Act and Rules, on 'a turnover
which included the turnover of a flour mill of the assessee. The assessment was made ex-oarte. On account of food shortage the Government
had fixed a quota for the flour mill in 1953 on the basis of the average
grinding do.ne during the previous three years.
In view of the turnover
according to the account books of the assessee for the years 1955-56 and
1958-59, the sales-tax officer thought that the turnover· for the
year
1957-58 was underestimated and that ·some turnover had escaped assessment.
He accordingly issued a notice in September 1961 and a memo·
randum on 13th March 1962 calling upon the asse'5ee to produtje the
account books but no account books were produced. On 24th March,
1962, a notice was issued under s.21 of the Act.
It was served on the
asscssoe on 26th March 1962. On March 19, 1963, the sal::s tax officer
made an assessment order under s. '21 estimating the turnover at a higher
figure.
Section 21 provides that if the assessing authority has reason to
believe that the whole or part of the turnover of a dealer had es\'aped
assestment, he may reassesc the dealer to tax, that such re-assessment
shall not be made for any assessmeint year after the expiry of four y:ara,
and that where notice under the section had been served within four years,
the re-asse· sment may be made within one year of the date of service of
the not.ice even if the period of four years is thereby exceeded.
The High Court, on reference under s.11 of the Act, held that: (1)
the firs\ notice and ·memora;ndum were not notices under s.21 so as to
attract the period of limitation of one year for making the re-assessnr.nt,
but (2) that the assessing offioer could not in the circum'tances of the
case, be said to have reason to believe that some turnover of the assessee
had escaped assessment.
In appeal to this Court,
HELD : (I ) The High Court was right in holding that the first notice
and memolcandum were of a preliminary nature and did not constitute
notices under s.21. All that was stated in them was to call upon
the
assessee to produr-e account books, and a threat, in c..,e of non-compliance, that action may be taken under s.2! of the Act.
It was only on
March 24, 1962, that notice under that sectio.n was given to the respondent.
Th.o re-as-essment made on March 19, 1963, was within one year
of the dates of service if the notice and hence, the re-as5.essment was no'"
barred by limitation. [635C-El
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626
SUPREME COURT RBrORTS
[1973] 2 s.c.a.
(2) The lfigh Court was in error in holding that the assessing e.uthoA
rity did not act with~n the ambit of his powers in 'initiating proceedings
under s. 21. [634FJ
(a) The words 'reason to believe' convey that there .must be some
reasonable grounds for the assessing authority to form the belief that tbil
turnover had escaped assesslll<lnt.
Reasonable grounds necessarily postu·
late that they must be germane to the formation of the belief regarding
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escaped assessment. The belief· must be held in good faith and should IDOi
be a pretence. ·At the stage of the \ssu,e of notice the only consideration
which has to weigh with. the assessing authority is whether there is some
relevant material giving rise to the prima facie inference that some turn·
over has escaped asse'5ment. If the grounds are of an extraneou• characlter, they would not warrant initiation of proceedings under the sect.ion.
But if they are relevant and have a nexus with the formation of the belief
regarding escaped assessment, the assessing authority would be clothed with
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jurisdiction to take action under the section.
Whether the grounds are
adequate or not is not a matter which would be gone into by the High
Court or this Court, for, the suffici.e;ncy

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625
THE COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX, U.P.
v.
MIS. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (P) LTD. LUCKNOW
October 10, 1972
[K. S. HEGIJE, P. JAGANMOHAN REDDY AND H. ),?.. KIIANNA, JJ.]
U.P. Sales Tax Act and Rules, s. 21--Ex-oarte assessment-Notice· for
assessment of escaped turnover-When can be issued-'Reason to believe•,
scope of.
For the assessment year 1957-58, the assessee (respondent) was assessed to mies tax, under the U.P. Sales Tax Act and Rules, on 'a turnover
which included the turnover of a flour mill of the assessee. The assessment was made ex-oarte. On account of food shortage the Government
had fixed a quota for the flour mill in 1953 on the basis of the average
grinding do.ne during the previous three years.
In view of the turnover
according to the account books of the assessee for the years 1955-56 and
1958-59, the sales-tax officer thought that the turnover· for the
year
1957-58 was underestimated and that ·some turnover had escaped assessment.
He accordingly issued a notice in September 1961 and a memo·
randum on 13th March 1962 calling upon the asse'5ee to produtje the
account books but no account books were produced. On 24th March,
1962, a notice was issued under s.21 of the Act.
It was served on the
asscssoe on 26th March 1962. On March 19, 1963, the sal::s tax officer
made an assessment order under s. '21 estimating the turnover at a higher
figure.
Section 21 provides that if the assessing authority has reason to
believe that the whole or part of the turnover of a dealer had es\'aped
assestment, he may reassesc the dealer to tax, that such re-assessment
shall not be made for any assessmeint year after the expiry of four y:ara,
and that where notice under the section had been served within four years,
the re-asse· sment may be made within one year of the date of service of
the not.ice even if the period of four years is thereby exceeded.
The High Court, on reference under s.11 of the Act, held that: (1)
the firs\ notice and ·memora;ndum were not notices under s.21 so as to
attract the period of limitation of one year for making the re-assessnr.nt,
but (2) that the assessing offioer could not in the circum'tances of the
case, be said to have reason to believe that some turnover of the assessee
had escaped assessment.
In appeal to this Court,
HELD : (I ) The High Court was right in holding that the first notice
and memolcandum were of a preliminary nature and did not constitute
notices under s.21. All that was stated in them was to call upon
the
assessee to produr-e account books, and a threat, in c..,e of non-compliance, that action may be taken under s.2! of the Act.
It was only on
March 24, 1962, that notice under that sectio.n was given to the respondent.
Th.o re-as-essment made on March 19, 1963, was within one year
of the dates of service if the notice and hence, the re-as5.essment was no'"
barred by limitation. [635C-El
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626
SUPREME COURT RBrORTS
[1973] 2 s.c.a.
(2) The lfigh Court was in error in holding that the assessing e.uthoA
rity did not act with~n the ambit of his powers in 'initiating proceedings
under s. 21. [634FJ
(a) The words 'reason to believe' convey that there .must be some
reasonable grounds for the assessing authority to form the belief that tbil
turnover had escaped assesslll<lnt.
Reasonable grounds necessarily postu·
late that they must be germane to the formation of the belief regarding
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escaped assessment. The belief· must be held in good faith and should IDOi
be a pretence. ·At the stage of the \ssu,e of notice the only consideration
which has to weigh with. the assessing authority is whether there is some
relevant material giving rise to the prima facie inference that some turn·
over has escaped asse'5ment. If the grounds are of an extraneou• characlter, they would not warrant initiation of proceedings under the sect.ion.
But if they are relevant and have a nexus with the formation of the belief
regarding escaped assessment, the assessing authority would be clothed with
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jurisdiction to take action under the section.
Whether the grounds are
adequate or not is not a matter which would be gone into by the High
Court or this Court, for, the suffici.e;ncy of the grounds which induced tlie
assessing authority to act is not a justiciable issue.
What c'.an be challenged is the existence of the belief, but not the sufficiency of reasons for the
belief. [63ZD-HJ
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S. Narayanappa v. Commisswner of Income Tax, [1961] 63 I.T.R. 219,
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appli•<d.
In the present case, the facts show that the assessing authority had
valid grounds for forming the belief that part of the tUil!lOver of the res·
pendent had escaped as essment, and that too belief was formed in good
faith. [634C·Fl
(b) There is nothing in s.21 lo 5upport the contention that proceedE
ings for re-assessment cannot be initiated under the section in the case of
ex-parte assessments. Such a construction would put a premium on con-
. tumacy and afford protection· !O dealers who avoid appearing before the
assessing authority. [6340-H; 635A·BI
CIVIL APPELLA1E JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No.
2032
of 1969.
Appeal. by special leave from the judgment and order dated
February 26, 1969 of the Allahabad High Court in Sales Tax
Reference No. 440 of 1967.
S. C. Manc!wnda and 0. P. Rana, for the appellant.
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N. D. Karkhanis, Ram Awtar Garg and Ram Lal, for the G
respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
KHANNA, J- This appeal by special leave by the Commissioner
of Sales Tax Uttar Pradesh is directed against the judsment of
Allahabd High Court whereby it answered the following two
questions referred to it under sectio~ 11 of U.P. Sales Tax Act
(hereinafter reierred to as the Act) in the nega<i:ive :
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C.S.T. v. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (Khanna, J.)
627
(I) Whether the assessing officer under these circumstances could be said to have had an honest belief
that the turnover had partially escaped taxation so as to
start proceedings under section 21 ?
(II) Whether the aforesaid two preliminary notices
asking for the production of accounts can be taken to
be notices under Sec. 21 for the starting of the proceedings so as to warrant passing of the assessment within
one year of the service thereof ?"
The matter relates to the assessment year 1957-58. The respondent assssee, Bhagwan Industries (P) Ltd., carries on the
c business of selling atta, maida and sooji. Its business comprises
various units including Venkateshwar Flour Mills, Lucknow. It
was assessed on December 2(1, 19~8 for the purpose of sales tax
for the year 1957-58 under rule 41(5) of the U.P. Sales Tax Rules.
The eS1imated turnover was determined to be Rs. 46,00,000, out
of which the net turnover of Venkateshwar Flour Mills for atta,
D maida and sooji was estimated at Rs. 43,00,000. The assessment
was ex-parte and the respondent did not produce the account boob.
On account of food shortage the Government banned the pu_rchase of wheat he' rolling ftour mills from the open market in
August 1958. The Government further fixed quota ?f wheat to~
supplied by the Central Government for each such mill on the basis
E of average of grinding done in the passt three years. The quota of
Venkateshwar Flour Mills was fixed a1 1,192 tons, i.e.
32,000
maunds per month. With that quota the respondent in the assessment year 1958-59 disclosed a turnover of Rs. 75,70,840. On
September 13, 1961 the Sales Tax Officer issued the following
notice to the respondent
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."Certain items of sales and purchases made by you
durmg the year 57-58 & 58-59 have come to my notice
which need verification. You are required to appear
before me on 27-9-61 wi·th all your account books of.
the year 57-58 and 58-59 for the
above mentioned
verification.
2. Please note that in case you fail to appear it will
be presumed that the Sales and Purchases under reference are not entered in your books and action under
section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act may be taken
against you."
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The above notice was served upon the respondent on September
19, 1961.
Appeara~ce was put in on behalf of the respondent in
pursuance of the notice, but the account books were not produced .
528
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1973] 2 s.c.R.
On March 13, 1962 the Sales Tax Officer sent the following
memorandum to the respondent :
"Mis Bhagwan Industries Private Ltd., Aishbagh
Lucknow deal in atta, maida and sooji which are manufactured by them in their rolling flour mills Shree Venkateshwar Flour Mills. They have been finally assessed
for the years 1956-57 and 1957-58 on estimated turnover of Rs. 42,75,000/- (tax «ssessed Rs. 98,046-94)
and Rs. 45,00,000 (tax assessed Rs. 72,875.00) respectively. Both these assessment orders were passed exparte. The case of the year 1956-57 was reopened under
section 21 on the basis of certain information and an
escaped turnover of Rs. 35,532/- was again
assessed
under section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Aot.
At the
time of this assessme'lt also the account books were
not produced.
2. The above mentioned firm is on record for the
last many years. The sale of a1ta, maida and sooji was
exempt under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax A0t upto
31-3-56 but was declared taxable with effect from 1-4-56.
According to 1he assessment order of the year 1955-56
their sales of atta, maida and sooji had amounted to
Rs. 58,18,425-15-6. The assessment case of the 1;rm
for the year 1958-59 has also been completed and during
1hat year according to the account· books the turnover
of atta, maida and sooji had amounted to Rs. 75, 70,840/-
Keeping in view the turnover according to the account
books during the year 1955-56 and 1958-59 it appeared
that the turnover determined in the exparte orders of
the year 1956-57 and 1957-58 was estimated at a
lesser amount and thus some turnover escaped assessment during each of these two years. It was, therefore,
considered necessary that the actual position ~ ascertained from the assessee.
Some information received
from other Sales Tax Officers regarding the sales made
by this firm during the year 1957-58 also needed verification as was done in the year 1956-57 resuHinJ!: in the
assessment of the firm under section 21 during that year.
3. A notice was, therefore, issued to the firm on
13-9-61 for the production of the account books of the
year 1957-58 but the firm failed to produce-the account
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books.
Again summons were issued under rule 78 of
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the U.P. Sales Tax Rules to Shri Keshoe Pd. Vaid,
Managing Director of the firm requiring him to appear
in person and to produce the account books of the
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C,S.T. v. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (Khanna, J.)
firm for the year 1956-57 and 1957-58
but again
neither the account books were produced nor Shri Vaid
appeared in person.
One
application
dated
27-12-1961 was, however, received from one of the
directors of the firm informing that Shri Kesheo Pd.
Vaid was out of station and requesting that the summons be issued in the name of the concern M/s.
Bhagwan Industries Private Ltd. rather than in the name
of any individual.
This application has been kept on
record.
4. The hesitation on the part of the firm to produce
the account books and even to disclose their actual
turnover during the years 1956-57 and 1957-58 as per
their account books confirms the presumption that they
have been under-assessed for these two years. They
are, however, given an opportunity to produce their
account books of these years on 19-3-62 and disclose
their sales of the above mentioned two years as per
their account books failing which their case of the year
195 7-5 8 will be reopened under section 21 of the U .P.
Sales Tax Act and penalty or prosecution proceedings
as permissible under the U .P. Sales Tax Act shall be
started for the year 1956-57 the assessment of which has
already become time barred.
5. A copy of this order shall be kept in the file of
the dealer pertaining to the years 1956-57 and another
shall be kept in the file pertaining to the year 1957-58."
The memorandum was received by the respondent on March 16,
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1962. but the ac.count books were not produced by the respondent. On March 24, 1962 the following notice was issued under
section 21 of the Act to the respondent and the same was served
on March 26, 1962 :
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"As I have come to .know that a part df your sale
proceeds relating to the assessment year 1957-58, has
been left over from being taxed.
Therefore, I order
that you should furnish supplementary statement of the
Sale-proceeds in the form attached herewith in respect
0f the year ending 31-3-58 within 15 days.
2. You are further infom1ed that you should be present at the Sales Tax Office, Golaganj on 27-4-62 at
I 0.30 O'clock. along with all the account books and
your other business papers in respect of the year the
630
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1973] 2 s.c.R.
sale proceeds whereof are mentioned by you in the
above mentioned statement. If you fail to turn up on
the fixed date tax shall be levied on you ex-parte."
On October 5, 1962 the accountant of the respondent made
a statement before the Sales Tax Officer that the account books
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for the years 1956-57 and 1957-58 had been displaced in the
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head office at Bombay and no books, regis:ers or vouchers regarding the business of the years
1956-57 and 1957-58 were
available.
On March 19, 1963 the Sales Tax Officer made an
assessment order under section 21 of the Act for the assessment
year 1957-58 estimating the total net turnover for that year at
Rs. 84,50,000. The amount of escaped turnover was estimated
to be Rs. 38,50,000.
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Appeal filed by the respondent against the above order was
dismissed.
The re>pondent then went up in revision and contended that
there was no material on which the Sales Tax Officer could have D
reason to relieve that turnover had escaped assessment.
The
proceedings initiated l!nder section 21 of the Act were said to be
without jurisdiction. It was also urged on behalf of the respondent that notice issued on September 13, 1961 as also the memorandum dated March 13, 1962 constituted valid notices
under
section 21 of the Act and as the assessment had not been completed within one year of the service of those notices, the assessE
ments were barred by limitation. The Judge (Revisions) rejected these contentions.
He was, however, of the opinion that the
quantum of turnover needed redetermination. At the instance of
the respondent, the Judge (Revisions) referred the questions reproduced at the commencement of this judgment to the High
Court.
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The High Court while ~nswering the ~rst .~~estio~ in the negative referred to the words reason to believe
111 section 21 of the
Act' and observed that the reason must be that of an honest and
reasonable person based upon reasonable grounds and that it was
not sufficient that the Sales Tax Officer should have reason to
suspect that the turnover had been under-assessed. In the opi· G
nion of the High Court, it could not be said that the Sales Ta"<
Officer had reason to believe that the turnover had been underassessed.
As regards the second question, the High Court held
that notice dated September 13, 1961
and the ·memorandum
dated March 13, 1962 were of a preliminary nature and could
not be considered to be notices under section 21 of the Act.
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In appeal before us Mr. Manchanda on be~alf of the ap~ellant has i.ssailed the correctness of the answer given by the High
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C.S.T. v. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (Khanna, J.)
631
A Court to the first question. It is submitted that there was rational
basis for the Sales Tax Officer to believe that the turnover of the
respondent had been under-assessed and that the finding of the
High Court that the Sales Tax Officer could not be said. to have
reason to believe that the turnover had been under-assessed was
incorrect. As against that Mr. Karkhanis on behalf of the resB pondent has canvassed for the correctness of the view of the High
Court in answer to question No. (I). There is, in our opinion,
considerable force in the submission of Mr. Manchanda. Section
21 of the Act deals with assessment of tax on assets and levy of
licence fees incorrectly assessed, and reads as under :
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"(1) If the assessing authority has reason to believe
that the whole or any part of the turnover of a dealer
has, for any reason, escaped assessment to tax for any
year, the assessing authority may, after issuing notice
to the dealer, and making such enquiry as may be necessary, assess or re-assess him to tax :
Provided that the tax shall be charged at the rate at
which it would have been charged had the turnover not
escaped assessment, or full assessment, as the case may
be.
Exp/anation.-Nothing in this sub-section shall be
deemed to prevent the as§eSsing authority from making
an assessment to the best of its iudgment. ,
(2) No order of assessment under sub-section (I)
or under any other provision of this Act shall be made
for any assessment year after the expiry of four years
from the end of such year :
Provided that where the notice under sub-section
(I) has been served within such four years the assessment or re-assessment to be made in pursuance of such
notice may be made within one year of the date of the
service of the notice even if the period of four year'
is thereby exceeded :
Provided further that nothing
contained in
this
section limiting the time within ·which any assessment
or re-assessment may be made shall apply to an assessment or re-assessment made in consequ,ence of. or to
give effect to, any finding or direction contained in an
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order under section 9, 10 or 11.
Explanation.-Where the assessment
proceedings
relating to any dealer remained stayed under the orders
632
SUPllBME COlmT llBPO&TS
[1973] 2 S.C.R
of any Civil or other competent Court, the period durA
ing which the proceedings remained so stayed shall be
excluded in computing the period of limitation for
assessment provided under this sub-section."
Perusal of sub-section ( 1 ) of the section reproduced above shows
that the assessing authority can assess or re-assess a dealer to tax B
if such authority has reason to believe that the whole or any part
of the turnover of a dealer has, for any reason, escaped assessment to tax for any year. In such an event, the assessing authority before making the assessment or re-assessment must issue
notice to the dealer.
The said authority may also make such
enquiry as may be necessary in the circumstances of the case.
The controversy between the parties has centered on the point
as to whether the assessing authority in the present case had
reason to believe that any part of the turnover of the respondent
had escaped assessment to tax for the assessment year 1957-58.
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Qirestion in the circumstances arises as to what is the import of
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the words "reason to believe", as used in the section. In our opiD
nion. these words convey that there must be some rational basis
for the assessing authority to form the belief that the whole or any
part of the turnover of a dealer has, for any reason, escaped
assessment to tax for some year. If such a basis exists, the
assessing authority can proceed in the manner laid down in the
section. To put it differently, if there are, in fact, some reasonE
able grounds for the assessing authority to believe that the whole
or any part of the turnover of a dealer has escaped assessment,
it can take action under the section. Reasonable grounds necessarily postulate that they must be germane to the formation of
the belief regarding escaped assessment. If the grounds are of
an extraneous character, the same would not warrant initiation of F
proceedings under the above section. If, however, the grounds
are relevant and have a nexus with the formation of belief regarding escaped assessment, the assessing authority
would be
clothed with jurisdiction to take action under the section. Whether
the grounds are adequate or not is not a matter which would be
gone into by the High Court or this Court, for the sufficiency of
the grounds which induced the assessing authority to act is riot a
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justiciable issue. What can be challenged is the existence of the
belief but not the sufficiency of reasons for the belief. At the
same time. it is necessary to observe that the belief must be held
in good faith and should not be a mere pretence.
It may also be mentioned that at the stage of the issue of ff
notice the consideration which has to weiith is whether there is
some relevant material giving rise to prima focie inference that
some turnover has escaped assessment.
The question
as
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c.s.T. v. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (Khanna, /,)
63J
A whether that material is sufficient for making assessment or reassessment under section 21 of the Act would be gone into after
notice is issued to the dealer and he has been heard in the matter
or given an opportunity for that purpose. The assessing authority
would then decide the matter in the light of material already in
its possession as well as fresh material procured as a result of the
B enquiry which may be considered necessary.
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The import of the words "reason to believe" has been examined
by this Court in cases arising out of proceedings under section 34
of :he Indian Income Tax Act, 1922 wherein also these words
were used.
The aforesaid section dealt with income escaping
assessment and con~rred jurisdiction on the Income Tax Officer
tc make assessment or re-assessment if he had reason to believe
that income, profits or gains chargeable to income tax had been
under-assessed and that such unde~:assessment had occurred by
reason of either omission or failure on the part of. the assessee
to make a return of his income or to disclose fully and tntly aU
material facts necessary for his assessment. Certain other condiD
tions were also necessary, but we are not concerned with them ..
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Dealing with that section in the case of S. Narayanappa v. Commissioner of Income Tax(') this Court observed :
"But the legal position is that if there are in fact
some reasonabl·e grounds for the Income-tax officer to
believe that there had been any non-disclosure as regards any fact, which could have a material bearing
on the question of under-assessment, that would be
sufficient to give jurisdiction to the Income-tax Officer
to issue the notice under section 34.
Whether these
grounds are adequate or not is not a matter for the
court to investigate.
In other words, the. sufficiency
of the grounds which iiiduced the Income-tax Officer
to act is not a justiciable issue.
It is of course open
for the assessee to contend that the Income-tax Officer
did not hold the belief that there had been such nondisclosure.
In other words,
the existence of the
belief can be challenged by the assessee but not the
sufficiency of the reasons for the belief.
Again the
expression "reason to b¢lieve"
in section 34 of. the
Income-tax Act does not mean a purely subjective satisfaction on the part of the Income-tax Officer.
To put
it differently, it is open to the court to examine the
question whether the reasons for the belief have
a
rational connection or a relevant bearing to the formation of the belief and are not extraneous or irrelevant
to the purpose of the section.
To this limited extent,
(I) (1967) 63 !. T. R. 219.
·634
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1973] 2 S.C.R.
the action of the Income-tax Officer in starting proceedings under section 34 of the Act is open to challenge in a court of law."
Reliance was placed in the aboV'e context upon an earlier de<:isiOn
-Of this Court in the case of Calcutta Discount Co. Ltd. v. Incometax Officer, Companies District I, Calcutta.(') The above observations 1egarding the import of the words "reason to believe"
though made in the context of section 34 of the Indian Income
Tax Act, 1922 have, in our opinion, equal bearing on the construction of those words in section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act.
In the light of othe view we have taken of the import of the
words "reason to believe", we have no doubt that the assessing
, .authority in the present case had valid grounds for initiating proceedings under section 21 of the Act against the respondent. lt
would appear from the memorandum dated March 13, 1962
sent by the assessing authority that for the assessment year
1955-56 the sales of atta, maida and soi:>ji of the respondent
amounted to over rupees fiftyeight lakhs. Account books of the
respondent also sliowed that during the year 1958-59 the tum-
·Over of the respondent for sale of· atta, maida and sooji amounted
to over rupees seventyfive Iakhs. The assessing authority had also
material with it to show that the quota of wheat for the respondent had been fixed in August 1958 on the basis Of the average of
grinding done in the past three years. There was also the additional fact othat the respondent had in spite of repeated notices
not produced its account books for the assessment year 1957-58.
'Jhese facts, in our opinion, were germane to the
formation
of the belief of the assessing authority that part of the turnover
of the respondent had escaped assessment to tax. It cannot be
said that the above belief was not formed in good faith or was
mere pretence for initiating action under section 21 of the Act.
rrJie assessing authority in the circumstances, in our opinion,
acted within the ambit of its powers in initiating proceedings
under section 21 of the Act.
We are unable to accede to the contention of Mr. Karkhanis
A
B
c
D
E
F
that as the assessment sought to tie reopened was ex-parte assessG
ment under rule 41(5) of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Rules,
no proceedings in respect of that assessment can be
initiated
under section 21 of the Act. There is nothing in that section to
restrict its· operation to assessments other than those which have
been made ex-parte under rule 41 ( 5). The language of the
section makes it plain that the assessing authority can take action
if such authority has reason to believe that the whole or part of
H
1he turnover of a dealer has, for any reason, escaped assessment
(!) (1961) 41 I. T. R. 191.
c.s.T. v. BHAGWAN INDUSTRIES (Khanna, I.)
635
A to tax for any year. To accede to the contention of Mr. ~arkha
nis would be tantamount to affording protection, so far as the
operation of section 21 is concerned, to dealers who avoid to put
in appearance and produce their account books before the assessing authority.. Such a construction is not only not warranted
by the language of the section, it is manifestly unreasonable inas·
B much as it puts a premium on contumacy.
Mr. Karkhanis has also assailed the answer of the High
Court to question No. (Ii) and has contended that the notice
dated September 13, 1961 and the memorandum dated March
13. 1962 should be construed as notices under section 21 of the
Act.
As the re-assessment was not completed within one year
C of the. service of .these notices, the re-assessment, according to
the learned counsel, should be )leld to be barred by limitation.
There is, in our opinion, no force in this contention, we agree
with the High Court that the above notice and the memorandum
were of a preliminary nature and did not constitute noti.ces under
section 21 of the Act. All that was stated in the said notice and
D Ihe memorandum was io call upon the respondent to produce
account books. Threat was also held out that in case of noncompliance by the respondent, proceedings would be taken under
section 21 of the Act. The above notice and the memorandum
could not consequently be construed as notices under section 21
of the Act. It was only on March 24, 1962 that notice under
E section 21 of the Act was given to the respondent and the same
was served on March 26, 1962. The assessment under section
21 was made on March 19, 1963 which was admittedly within
one year of the date of the service of the notice under section 21
of the Act.
We accordingly accept the appeal and discharge the answer
F iiven by the High Court to question No. (I). In our orinion.
the assessing authority had an honest belief that the turnover of
the resoondent had partially escaped taxation so as to .iustifv
initiation of proceedinl!s und~ section 21 of the
Act.
We
accordingly answer the said question in the affirmative and in
favour of the deoartment. The aonellant shall be entitled to the
G costs of ihis Court as well as in the High Cm1rt.
V.P.S.
Appeal allowed.