Administrative transfer of tax records upheld where transferee officer had jurisdiction and no prior hearing was required.

Section 3(4) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 authorised the Deputy Commissioner to transfer an assessee's case from one assessing authority to another competent authority. The transfer was upheld because the assessee's factory was located within the transferee officer's jurisdiction, and the order was treated as an administrative measure made for administrative exigency rather than a quasi-judicial determination. On that basis, the HC held that no prior hearing was required before issuing the transfer order, and the challenge to jurisdiction and denial of natural justice failed.

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Issues: Whether the Deputy Commissioner had jurisdiction under section 3(4) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 to transfer the assessee's records from one Sales Tax Officer to another, and whether the assessee was entitled to be heard before such transfer.

Analysis: Section 3(4) empowered the Deputy Commissioner to transfer any case or cases relating to an assessee from one assessing authority to another authority having jurisdiction to deal with the matter. Since the assessee's factory was situated within the jurisdiction of the transferee officer, the transfer was within statutory power. The order was administrative in nature and made in the exigency of administration. In such a transfer, no prior hearing was necessary.

Conclusion: The transfer order was valid and the challenge based on lack of jurisdiction and denial of hearing failed.

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