Contemporaneous penalty jurisdiction under sales tax law requires levy during best judgment assessment, not by a later successor authority.

Penalty under section 14(2) of the A.P. General Sales Tax Act had to be imposed contemporaneously by the assessing authority while making the best judgment assessment. The phrase "while making the assessment" was construed to require the same authority to record satisfaction and levy penalty at that stage; a later penalty order passed by a successor authority for the same assessment year was outside the statutory scope and lacked jurisdiction. On that basis, the subsequent penalty proceedings were invalid, and the penalty order and connected appellate orders were quashed.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 14(2) of the A.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1957 could be levied only by the assessing authority while making the best judgment assessment and not thereafter.

Analysis: The expression used in section 14(2), namely, "while making the assessment", was construed as requiring the same assessing authority to form the requisite satisfaction and levy penalty at the time of making the best judgment assessment. A penalty order passed later by a successor authority, though relating to the same assessment year, was held to fall outside the scope of the provision. Since the assessment had already been completed, the later penalty proceedings were treated as lacking jurisdiction.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 14(2) could be levied only contemporaneously with the best judgment assessment and not subsequently; the penalty order and the appellate orders were invalid and were quashed.

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