In Srinidhi Oil Products Ltd v. Additional Commissioner (CT), the Hyderabad High Court held that the revisional authority is duty-bound to give an opportunity to Rectify the Defects before Rejecting C Forms on ground of discrepancies under the General Sales Tax Act.
The petitioners approached the High Court challenging a revised assessment order passed under the General Sales Tax Act. In the present case, original assessment was completed by the assessing officer by accepting the C Forms furnished by the assessee. Later, the the Additional Commissioner has rejected those C-Forms on the ground of discrepancies by invoking his revisional jurisdiction.
Aggrieved by the order, the assessee filed writ petition before the Court and raised two questions before the bench. Firstly, whether after a long period of time a revisional authority can reject the C-Forms which were accepted by the Assessing Officer. Secondly, whether while doing so, the dealer should have an opportunity or not.
With respect to the first question, the bench said that “we have our own doubts. If an Assessing Officer accepts the statutory forms and passes an order of assessment, a revisional authority should normally go by it, unless the Assessing Officer has any suspicion. To reject the very same Forms accepted by the Assessing Officer, would tantamount to finding fault with the manner in which the Assessing Officer accepted the Forms.”
“There is no doubt that the revisional authority has the power to do so. But it is not a question of existence of power but a question of exercise of the power, and in what circumstances the same could be exercised.” It added.
Answering the second question in favour of the assessee, the bench observed that, the revisional authority should have returned the C-Forms and given an opportunity to the dealer to rectify the defects before rejecting the C-Forms as containing discrepancies. The bench relied on the decision of the same Court in Agarwal Industries Limited v. Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.
Read the full text of the Order below.
