Best judgment assessment of escaped turnover is permissible when accounts are absent, but duplicated suppression additions must be removed.

Where escaped turnover is shown to extend over the whole assessment year and no accounts are available for exact computation, the assessing authority may adopt a best judgment estimate, and that power is treated as implicit in escaped turnover assessments. The tribunal's quantified addition must also avoid double counting; any component already separately assessed for the same suppression, such as vanaspati turnover, has to be excluded from the estimate. The best judgment basis was upheld, but the duplicated component was deleted, resulting in a downward modification of the addition.

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Issues: (i) Whether, in a proceeding for assessment of escaped turnover, the assessing authority could estimate the turnover to the best of judgment when the facts showed suppression for the whole assessment year and no accounts were available for an exact computation. (ii) Whether the quantum of escaped turnover determined by the appellate tribunal required reduction to avoid duplication of the addition made for vanaspati suppression.

Issue (i): Whether, in a proceeding for assessment of escaped turnover, the assessing authority could estimate the turnover to the best of judgment when the facts showed suppression for the whole assessment year and no accounts were available for an exact computation.

Analysis: The existence of an anamath account and the manner of transactions permitted an inference that suppression was not confined to a brief period but extended over a longer period, possibly the whole year. Where the material established that escaped turnover related to the whole assessment year and the assessee maintained no accounts from which the exact turnover could be ascertained, estimation became necessary. The power to estimate by best judgment was treated as implicit in the provision dealing with escaped turnover, notwithstanding the separate rule expressly referring to best judgment assessment.

Conclusion: The best judgment method was held permissible in such escaped turnover assessments, and this issue was decided against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the quantum of escaped turnover determined by the appellate tribunal required reduction to avoid duplication of the addition made for vanaspati suppression.

Analysis: The appellate tribunal's estimate of escaped turnover included an amount that had already been separately brought to tax as vanaspati suppression. Since the same suppression could not be counted twice, the addition required correction by excluding the duplicated component.

Conclusion: The quantum was reduced by eliminating the duplicated vanaspati component, and this issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The assessment of escaped turnover on a best judgment basis was upheld, but the quantified addition was modified downward to remove duplication, leaving the revision otherwise dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where escaped turnover is found to extend over the whole assessment year and the assessee has no accounts enabling exact computation, the authority may assess the turnover by best judgment, and duplication in estimating escaped turnover must be avoided.

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