Revisional power and late evidence under sales tax law: Tribunal could ignore improperly admitted material.

Section 31 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953 was construed as conferring wide revisional power on the Tribunal, without any implied limit confining it to the merits of assessment alone. Admission of additional evidence at a late stage remained a matter of judicial discretion, and where the assessee had already failed to produce the material before the original authority despite opportunities, the Tribunal could treat the Deputy Commissioner's permission as an improper exercise of discretion. The Tribunal was therefore entitled to disregard that additional material while examining the legality of the revisional order, and no error of law arose in refusing to consider it.

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Issues: Whether, in revision under section 31 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1953, the Tribunal was bound to consider additional evidence and books of account that the Deputy Commissioner had permitted the assessee to produce at a late stage.

Analysis: Section 31 conferred wide revisional power on the Tribunal to revise any order passed by the subordinate authority, without any implied restriction confining it only to the merits of the assessment. The propriety of admitting additional evidence at a late stage remained a matter of judicial discretion. Where the assessee had failed to produce the material before the original authority despite opportunities, the Tribunal was entitled to hold that the Deputy Commissioner had improperly exercised discretion in admitting such evidence. Once the Tribunal found that the evidence ought not to have been admitted, it could ignore that evidence while examining the legality of the revisional order.

Conclusion: The question was answered in the negative. The Tribunal did not commit any error in law in refusing to look into the further evidence permitted by the Deputy Commissioner.

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