Form C defects cannot be cured by additional evidence; concessional sales tax requires a duly completed purchaser declaration.

A duly completed Form C is a statutory condition for concessional sales tax under the Central Sales Tax Act, and the required particulars must be filled by the purchasing dealer. Additional evidence cannot be used at the instance of the selling dealer to alter or rectify an entry in the purchaser's declaration form, because that would amount to correcting a statutory declaration by someone who did not make it. A defective or incomplete Form C, including incorrect registration particulars, does not satisfy the conditions for concession, and the deficiency cannot be cured by substitute evidence except in the limited case where the purchasing dealer himself corrects and resubmits the form.

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Issues: (i) Whether additional evidence could be admitted to correct or rectify an entry in Form C furnished by the purchasing dealer for claiming concessional tax. (ii) Whether a defective Form C, with an incorrect entry as to the registration particulars of the purchasing dealer, entitled the selling dealer to concessional rate of tax.

Issue (i): Whether additional evidence could be admitted to correct or rectify an entry in Form C furnished by the purchasing dealer for claiming concessional tax.

Analysis: The statutory scheme under section 8(1) and section 8(4) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 makes the furnishing of a duly filled and signed declaration in the prescribed form a condition precedent to concessional taxation. Form C is the document of the purchasing dealer, and the entries required by the form must be filled by that dealer. Although the Tribunal may admit additional evidence in appropriate cases under the procedural rules, that power does not extend to altering or correcting an entry in the declaration form itself at the instance of the selling dealer. Allowing such correction would amount to tampering with the purchaser's statutory declaration.

Conclusion: Additional evidence could not be used to correct or rectify the declaration form, and the issue was answered against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether a defective Form C, with an incorrect entry as to the registration particulars of the purchasing dealer, entitled the selling dealer to concessional rate of tax.

Analysis: The concessional rate under section 8(1) is available only when the conditions in section 8(4) are strictly satisfied. A Form C containing incorrect or incomplete particulars does not fulfil the statutory requirement. The declaration must be produced in original with the prescribed particulars correctly filled, and no substitute evidence can cure the defect where the selling dealer seeks to rely on the form as originally filed. A limited possibility remains only where the purchasing dealer himself takes back his own document for correction and returns it within a reasonable time, but that situation was not made out here.

Conclusion: The defective Form C did not justify grant of the concessional rate, and the issue was answered against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by holding that the Tribunal had erred in law in accepting the corrected particulars through additional evidence and in allowing the concession on the basis of a defective declaration form.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute makes a duly completed declaration form a condition for concessional sales tax, the defect cannot be cured by additional evidence at the instance of the selling dealer, because only the purchasing dealer can correct his own statutory declaration.

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