M/S. Sri Manjunatha Traders New Firm vs. The Commercial Tax Officer-I (Fac)
Held
The Court held that the assessing officer failed to provide an adequate opportunity to the assessee to produce crucial documents. The assessment proceeded without considering these documents, violating fair procedure.
Facts
The petitioner-assessee's input tax credit claim was denied because the supporting documents (purchase bills, sale bills, way bills) were seized and in the custody of a respondent. The petitioner requested the return of these documents for the assessment, but this was not done.
Key Issues
Whether the assessment order is liable to be set aside for denying the assessee an adequate opportunity to produce documents in its custody, which were crucial for claiming input tax credit.
Sections Cited
None
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE JOYMALYA BAGCHI AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURESH REDDY WRIT PETITION No.4858 of 2021 (Taken up through video conferencing) ORDER: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice Joymalya Bagchi)
Petitioner-assessee has assailed order dated 03.03.2020 imposing additional tax liability of Rs.66,30,494/- upon it on the limited issue that it was unable to justify its plea of input tax credit as the purchase bills, sale bills and way bills required to establish its claim of input tax credit had been seized and were in the custody of the 3rd respondent at the time of assessment.
Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that in the course of the assessment proceedings, his client had placed on record a letter dated 03.04.2019 requesting the 3rd respondent to return the said documents so that it may submit the said documents and claim input tax credit. As the 3rd respondent had not responded to such request, he prayed for adjournment of the assessment proceedings. Notwithstanding such prayer, assessment authority proceeded with the assessment and thereby its claim was illegally denied without giving adequate opportunity to produce the relevant documen
The judgment continues below.
Read the full judgment
A free account opens 10 full GST judgments a month (one account works on both bharattax.net and this site). Re-reading one you have already opened does not count again.
The summary, the parties, the sections and the citations above are open to everyone and always will be. Only the text of the order and the PDF are metered.
Reproduced from the public record of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Verify against the court's own copy before relying on it. Income tax judgments are on bharattax.net.