JUDGMENT
Venkataswami, J.
1. This tax revision is preferred against the order of the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Additional Bench), Madurai, dated June 30, 1992.
2. Brief facts are the following :
For the assessment year 1978-79, on the basis of the return submitted by the assessee assessment was made. Subsequently, the assessment was reopened under section 16 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, on the ground that the appellant had purchased from Mineral and Metal Trading Corporation (for short, “MMTC”) 6.996 M. T of stainless steel sheets for Rs. 4,13,420 on various dates, and those transactions did not reflect in the return submitted by the assessee for the year in question. Though the assessee disputed the claim of the Revenue, the assessment was revised under section 16(2) including a turnover of Rs. 6,33,195 and penalty was also levied at 1 1/2 times of the tax due on the escaped turnover, and an appeal filed against that revised assessment was also dismissed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Against that appellate order, a second appeal was filed to the Tribunal, and the Tribunal, on an earlier occasion, remanded the case to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, directing the appellate authority to furnish necessary details to the assessee to cause necessary enquiry for proving that the appellant had taken delivery of the stainless steel sheets from MMTC.
3. After remand, as mentioned above, it was found that the assessee had taken delivery of the stock in respect of three transactions out of seven disputed transactions. However, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, taking the view that the assessee had not proved that he had not taken delivery of the stainless steel sheets in respect of the other four transactions, observed as follows :
“…. I hold that the other four deliveries should have been made to the appellant only. Since the imports were against the condition of putting the sheets into manufacture, the assessment based on the presumption that the sheets were converted into vessels is also correct. I, therefore, sustain the entire assessment.”
Aggrieved by that, the assessee preferred a second appeal on a second time to the Tribunal. The Tribunal, on facts, found in respect of the four disputed transactions as follows :
“…… As regards the four purchases said to have effected by the appellant on March 10, 1978, July 22, 1978, October 12, 1978 and December 22, 1978, the said purchases are not supported by documentary evidence to correlate in effect that appellant purchased as per the said sale notes 4.002 M.T. of stainless steel sheets from MMTC and hence it is deleted …….”
The present revision petition is filed against this portion of the order of the Tribunal.
4. Mrs. Chitra Venkataraman, learned Additional Government Pleader (Taxes), strenuously argued that the Tribunal went wrong in deleting a portion of the turnover relating to the disputed four transactions on the ground that the said purchases are not supported by documentary evidence. According to the learned counsel, the burden is on the assessee to show that he has not taken delivery of 4.002 M.T. of stainless steel sheets as per the allotments.
5. We have seen that the Appellate Assistant Commissioner sustained the assessment on the ground of presumption in respect of these four transactions. That being the position, we cannot find fault with the order of the Tribunal that in the absence of any documentary evidence to support the purchases on various dates, in respect of the 4.002 M.T. of stainless steel sheets, the assessment on that turnover cannot be sustained. On the facts and in view of the finding of the Tribunal below, we do not think that we can accept the argument of the learned Additional Government Pleader that it is for the assessee to prove beyond doubt that she has not taken delivery of the stainless steel sheets in question. As the finding of the Tribunal is based on a perusal of records, we do not find any valid ground to interfere with the same. The petition is, therefore, dismissed.
6. Petition dismissed.