{"id":102739,"date":"1980-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1980-03-13T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/govindram-chatramal-vs-commissioner-of-sales-tax-on-14-march-1980"},"modified":"2015-08-13T18:11:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-13T12:41:55","slug":"govindram-chatramal-vs-commissioner-of-sales-tax-on-14-march-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/govindram-chatramal-vs-commissioner-of-sales-tax-on-14-march-1980","title":{"rendered":"Govindram Chatramal vs Commissioner Of Sales Tax on 14 March, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Madhya Pradesh High Court<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">Govindram Chatramal vs Commissioner Of Sales Tax on 14 March, 1980<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_citations\">Equivalent citations: 1984 55 STC 350 MP<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_author\">Author: G Singh<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: G Singh, S Surana<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<pre><\/pre>\n<p>JUDGMENT<\/p>\n<p> G.P. Singh, C.J.<\/p>\n<p>1. This is a reference made by the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal referring for our answer the following questions of law :\n<\/p>\n<p>(1) Whether or not conversion of paddy into rice and conversion of other grains into dal is manufacture of other goods which are different from either paddy or the whole grain, as the case may be ?\n<\/p>\n<p>(2) Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case, the failure of the assessee to disclose in the quarterly returns purchases of the value of Rs. 8,69,778.71 amounts to concealment of a turnover assessable to purchase tax, and therefore, liable to be penalised under Section 43 of the M. P. General Sales Tax Act, 1958 ?\n<\/p>\n<p>2.  The period with which we   are   concerned  in   this   case is  from 4th November, 1964, to 24th October, 1965.    The  answer  to  the  first  question  is concluded by the decision of a Division  Bench of this Court in   Laxmi Chand Badri Narain v.  Commissioner of Sales Tax  [1971]  27  STC 211.    It  was held in  that  case  that  dehusking  of    paddy  into   rice   and  conversion  of  other grains into dal amounts to manufacture of rice and dal.\n<\/p>\n<p>3.  As regards the second question,  Section 43 as it stood at the relevant time, provided  for imposition  of penalty in  case &#8220;a  dealer has  deliberately concealed his turnover or aggregate of the amount of purchase prices in  respect of any goods or furnished  a  false  return&#8221;.    It is clear from a  bare reading of Section 43 that the concealment of turnover  or the aggregate  of the amount of purchase prices and furnishing of a false return, to fall within the  ambit of  this section, must be accompanied with mens rea.   If  the  assessee  had   a  bona fide doubt whether the purchases of paddy and other grains were taxable or not and for this reason if he did not show the purchases in the return,  it cannot be said that there was any mens rea making the assessee liable for penalty.    There is no finding whatsoever of  deliberate concealment or intentional filing  of  a  false return.    Indeed, there is an implied finding  in  the  statement  of   case that the assessee was in doubt as  to  whether  conversion of paddy into   rice and other grains into dal amounted to manufacture.    It is, however, pointed out  that the assessee should have adopted the course of showing in the return the figures of purchases with a claim for exemption  from  purchase tax.    This is an advice of prudence.    Simply because the assessee was not prudent enough, he cannot be held liable for penalty.\n<\/p>\n<p>4. Our answers to the questions referred are  as follows :\n<\/p>\n<p>(1)  The conversion of paddy into rice and other grains into dal amounts to manufacture.\n<\/p>\n<p>(2)  The failure of the assessee to disclose in   its returns purchases of paddy and other grains of the value of Rs. 8,69,778.71 did not amount   to   concealment of turnover making it liable for penalty under Section 43.\n<\/p>\n<p>There will be no order as to costs of this reference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madhya Pradesh High Court Govindram Chatramal vs Commissioner Of Sales Tax on 14 March, 1980 Equivalent citations: 1984 55 STC 350 MP Author: G Singh Bench: G Singh, S Surana JUDGMENT G.P. Singh, C.J. 1. This is a reference made by the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal referring for our answer the following questions of law [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-court","category-madhya-pradesh-high-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Govindram Chatramal vs Commissioner Of Sales Tax on 14 March, 1980 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; High Court | Legal India<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/govindram-chatramal-vs-commissioner-of-sales-tax-on-14-march-1980\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Govindram Chatramal vs Commissioner Of Sales Tax on 14 March, 1980 - Free Judgements of Supreme Court &amp; 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