Additional evidence on appeal: Forms XII and XII-A could be admitted where no express bar restricted production to assessment stage.

Declarations in Forms XII and XII-A were not excluded from appellate consideration merely because they had not been produced before the assessing authority. The rule requiring production "at the time of assessment" was read as referring to the assessment process as a whole, not to a narrow stage before one officer alone. In the absence of an express statutory bar, and given the appellate authority's power to make further inquiry under section 38(5), additional evidence could be received in a proper case. The view that such documents were inadmissible simply because they were filed on appeal was therefore incorrect.

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Issues: Whether declarations in Forms XII and XII-A, not produced before the assessing authority, could be admitted at the appellate stage; and whether the appellate authority lacked jurisdiction to receive such additional evidence.

Analysis: The relevant rules required production of the declarations "at the time of assessment", which was held to refer to the assessment process as a whole and not only to the assessing authority in the narrow sense. In the absence of an express bar in the Act or Rules restricting production only before the assessing authority, and in view of the appellate authority's enabling power under section 38(5) to make further inquiry, additional evidence could be entertained in a proper case. The earlier view treating the documents as inadmissible merely because they were filed in appeal was therefore unsustainable.

Conclusion: The declarations in Forms XII and XII-A could be admitted at the appellate stage, and the Tribunal was wrong in holding that the appellate authority had no jurisdiction to receive them.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute and rules do not expressly confine a declaration or supporting document to production before the assessing authority, and the appellate authority is empowered to make further inquiry, such material may be admitted in appeal as additional evidence in a proper case.

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