Statutory inspection power cannot compel personal appearance or threaten ex parte assessment beyond the authority granted.

Section 13(1)(c) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act required the dealer to make accounts and documents available for inspection, which could justify a direction to produce them before the prescribed authority on a fixed date. The provision, however, did not authorise compulsion of the dealer's personal appearance for that purpose, nor did it permit a threat of an ex parte determination for non-compliance. A notice imposing those additional requirements exceeded the statutory power and was quashed to that extent.

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Issues: Whether, under section 13(1)(c) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1954, the prescribed authority could require the dealer to produce accounts and documents for inspection, direct personal appearance before him with those documents, and threaten an ex parte decision for non-compliance.

Analysis: Section 13(1)(c) obliges the dealer to make available for inspection the accounts, registers, vouchers and other documents required by the prescribed authority. The expression "make available" was read as meaning to produce or cause to be produced for inspection, and thus supported a requirement to produce the relevant documents at the office of the authority on a fixed date. However, the provision did not authorise the prescribed authority to compel the dealer's personal appearance for that purpose. Nor did it empower the authority to threaten an ex parte decision on tax liability for failure to comply with such a notice. The notice therefore travelled beyond the power conferred by the statute and was liable to be struck down.

Conclusion: The notice was invalid to the extent it required personal appearance and threatened an ex parte decision, and was quashed as being in excess of authority under the statute.

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