Sales tax liability cannot be fixed outside assessment machinery; any such determination must follow natural justice and hearing.

Under the charging provisions of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, sales tax liability arises from the statute itself, while assessment only quantifies that liability and recovery follows thereafter. A tax officer cannot independently determine the date from which liability arises outside the assessment machinery, and an order fixing liability that affects civil rights is quasi-judicial in character. Such a determination must comply with natural justice, including prior hearing. If the foundational liability order is invalid, any assessment, revisional order, or certificate proceeding based entirely on it is equally unsustainable and liable to be quashed, with liberty to proceed afresh according to law.

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Issues: Whether the order fixing the dealer's liability to pay sales tax from a particular date, made without prior hearing and without jurisdiction under the charging provisions, was valid; and whether the consequential assessment, revision order, and certificate proceedings could stand.

Analysis: Liability to sales tax arises from the charging provision itself, while assessment only quantifies that liability and recovery follows thereafter. The relevant statutory scheme did not authorise a separate proceeding by the Commercial Tax Officer to determine liability independently of assessment under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941. An order determining the period from which liability arises and affecting civil rights is not a mere administrative act; it is at least quasi-judicial in character and must conform to the principles of natural justice. Since no opportunity of hearing was given before the impugned determination, and the subsequent assessment rested entirely on that determination, the revisional order and certificate proceedings were also unsustainable.

Conclusion: The impugned order fixing liability was without jurisdiction and in breach of natural justice. The assessment, revisional order, and certificate proceedings founded on it were liable to be quashed, with liberty to proceed afresh according to law.

Ratio Decidendi: A tax authority cannot determine liability independently of the assessment machinery under the charging statute, and any order fixing such liability that affects civil rights must be made consistently with natural justice.

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