Sales tax confidentiality under section 26 protects only assessment-related records, not every document filed before authorities.

Section 26 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 protects particulars contained in statements, returns, accounts, documents and records produced in accordance with the Act and used in assessment proceedings, and prevents compelled production of that protected material except as permitted by the section. A tenant's application for cancellation of a sales tax licence and the order passed on that application were outside that confidentiality regime because they were not assessment-related documents. The confidentiality provision was also treated as one that may be invoked by the officer called upon to produce protected material, not as a general privilege available to the assessee. The objection to summoning those documents therefore failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether section 26 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 barred the production of the tenant's application for cancellation of his sales tax licence and the order passed thereon, and whether the tenant could successfully invoke that confidentiality provision to resist summoning of those documents.

Analysis: Section 26 protects particulars contained in statements, returns, accounts, documents and records produced in accordance with the Act and used in assessment proceedings, and prohibits the court from requiring their production except as the section permits. The application for cancellation of the sales tax licence and the order made on it were held to be outside that protected class because they were not documents connected with assessment returns or assessment proceedings. The confidentiality provision was also treated as one that is available to the officer of the State Government called upon to produce protected material, and not as a general privilege that the assessee could assert in the circumstances of this case.

Conclusion: Section 26 did not bar production of the licence-cancellation application or the order thereon, and the tenant's objection failed.

Final Conclusion: The revision petition was rejected because the documents sought were not covered by the statutory secrecy attached to assessment-related sales tax records.

Ratio Decidendi: The confidentiality under section 26 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 extends only to documents and particulars forming part of the assessment process under the Act, and does not protect every document filed before the sales tax authorities.

---