Tax authority's power to call for accounts is valid before assessment and without prescribed rules.

Section 16(1) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act authorises the Commissioner to call for accounts and information for tax administration even before any assessment or escaped-assessment proceeding is pending. The provision is directed to ascertaining the real taxable turnover and preventing evasion, so its operation is not confined to already initiated proceedings. The power also remains effective without prior framing of rules prescribing conditions for its exercise, because the provision is complete and workable on its own terms. On that basis, the notice was upheld and the challenge to it failed.

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Issues: (i) whether a notice under section 16(1) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 could be issued even when no assessment or escaped-assessment proceeding under section 12(8) was pending; (ii) whether the power under section 16(1) was inoperative until conditions for its exercise were prescribed by rules.

Issue (i): whether a notice under section 16(1) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 could be issued even when no assessment or escaped-assessment proceeding under section 12(8) was pending.

Analysis: The language of section 16(1) is wide and authorises the Commissioner to require production of accounts or information as may be necessary for the purposes of the Act. The provision is not confined to a period when assessment or reassessment proceedings are already pending. Its object is to enable the taxing authority to obtain the real taxable turnover and prevent evasion of tax, and it may be exercised even before a formal proceeding for assessment or escaped assessment is initiated.

Conclusion: The notice under section 16(1) was valid and not without jurisdiction merely because no escaped-assessment proceeding was then pending.

Issue (ii): whether the power under section 16(1) was inoperative until conditions for its exercise were prescribed by rules.

Analysis: Section 16(1) contains no language making the power dependent on prior prescription of conditions by rules. The parenthetical reference to prescribed conditions does not suspend the substantive power, which is capable of operating on its own terms. The provision therefore remains effective even in the absence of framed rules.

Conclusion: The absence of prescribed conditions did not render section 16(1) ineffective or deprive the authority of power to issue the notice.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the notice failed on both grounds, and the writ petition was rejected with costs.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory power to call for accounts and information for the purposes of a taxing Act is not confined to pending assessment proceedings, and it remains operative even if the contemplated regulatory conditions have not yet been prescribed, where the provision is otherwise complete and workable.

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