Dissolved firm assessment under sales tax law fails absent express statutory authority; assessment proceedings were quashed.

A dissolved firm cannot be assessed under a taxing statute unless the statute expressly or by necessary implication authorises assessment after dissolution. The court held that rules on reporting dissolution, discontinuance of business, and joint and several liability did not create such power, and a taxing statute cannot be enlarged by implication against the assessee. The later insertion of a specific provision in the 1963 Act was treated as confirming that the earlier General Sales Tax Act, 1125 contained no equivalent authority. The assessment proceedings against the dissolved firm were therefore quashed.

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Issues: Whether a dissolved firm could be assessed under the General Sales Tax Act, 1125 in the absence of an express or necessarily implied statutory provision authorising such assessment.

Analysis: The governing principle is that a taxing statute cannot be enlarged by implication against the assessee, and a dissolved firm ceases to be an assessable entity unless the statute expressly or by necessary implication provides otherwise. The provisions relied on from the rules governing report of dissolution, discontinuance of business, and joint and several liability did not create any such power. The later legislative insertion of a specific provision in the 1963 Act was treated as curing the earlier lacuna, which confirmed that the earlier Act contained no equivalent authority.

Conclusion: A dissolved firm was not liable to assessment under the General Sales Tax Act, 1125, and the proposed assessment could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The assessment proceedings against the dissolved firm were quashed, and the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: In fiscal legislation, assessment of a dissolved firm is permissible only where the statute authorises it expressly or by necessary implication; absent such authority, the assessment is without jurisdiction.

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