Account books at survey: later production does not justify automatic rejection, and factual acceptance usually raises no question of law.

Account books cannot be rejected solely because they were not produced for inspection at the time of survey; that omission may justify an adverse inference or penal action, but not automatic rejection. The assessing authority must still examine the books when later produced and may discard them only if the record shows defects, manipulation, or unreliability. Where the Tribunal accepts the books on a factual finding that no manipulation occurred, that finding is ordinarily one of fact and is not open to revision unless it is unsupported by evidence, based on inadmissible material, or contrary to the record. On this basis, no question of law arose from the Tribunal's acceptance of the accounts.

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Issues: Whether account books could be rejected merely because they were not produced for inspection at the time of survey, and whether the Tribunal's acceptance of the account books raised any question of law warranting interference in revision.

Analysis: Non-production of account books at the time of survey may justify an adverse inference and may also attract penal consequences, but it does not, by itself, require outright rejection of the books. The assessing authority must examine the books with care when later produced and may reject them only if defects, manipulation, or unreliability are shown on the material on record. Where the Tribunal, after considering the evidence, accepts the account books and records a factual finding that there was no manipulation, the sufficiency or correctness of that inference remains a matter of fact. Such a finding is not open to revision unless it is unsupported by evidence, based on inadmissible material, or contrary to the record.

Conclusion: The account books could not be rejected solely for non-production at survey, and the Tribunal's finding accepting them did not give rise to any question of law. The revision was therefore not maintainable on merits against the assessee.

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