Statutory election for assessment-year returns cannot be denied absent an express restriction or prior sanction requirement.

A dealer under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 could exercise the statutory option under Rule 39(1) to file quarterly returns on the assessment-year basis without prior sanction from the Sales Tax Commissioner. Section 7(1) treated previous-year returns as the default, but Rule 39(1) created a distinct election in favour of assessment-year returns, and Rule 39(2) only restricted a later change after that election had been made. Rule 40 did not displace that option, and in the absence of an express prohibition the right could not be cut down by implication. The dealer's election was therefore upheld.

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Issues: Whether a dealer who had earlier been assessed on the turnover of the previous year could elect to file quarterly returns on the basis of the assessment year without the previous sanction of the Sales Tax Commissioner.

Analysis: Section 7(1) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 treated returns of the previous year as the normal rule, while the relevant rules created an option to elect assessment on the basis of the assessment year. The decisive question was whether that option was controlled by a requirement of prior sanction. The Court read Rule 39(1) as conferring a single statutory choice to submit returns of the assessment year in lieu of those of the previous year, and Rule 39(2) as restricting only a fresh variation after such election had been made. Rule 40 was not treated as displacing that right, and the absence of an express bar against exercising the option under Rule 39(1) meant that the statutory right could not be denied by general principles.

Conclusion: The dealer was entitled to exercise the option under Rule 39(1) without obtaining the previous sanction of the Sales Tax Commissioner, and the answer to the referred question was in the affirmative.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the assessee's election to shift to assessment-year returns was upheld as a matter of statutory entitlement.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing rule confers a statutory option to adopt an alternative basis of return, that option cannot be curtailed by implication or general principles in the absence of an express restriction.

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