Natural justice in sales tax assessment requires real opportunity and evidentiary basis; unsupported turnover estimates are invalid.

An assessment under section 9(3) of the Tripura Sales Tax Act must be made on the basis of material on record after the dealer is given a real and reasonable opportunity to produce evidence and meet adverse material. The assessing authority acts quasi-judicially and must comply with natural justice, including audi alteram partem; if books are rejected, any estimate of turnover must still have an evidentiary foundation and the basis of the figure adopted must be disclosed. An assessment based on suspicion, conjecture, or unsupported guesswork is invalid, and the challenged assessment was held to be vitiated for denial of opportunity and absence of supporting material.

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Issues: Whether the assessment made under section 9(3) of the Tripura Sales Tax Act, 1976 was vitiated for denial of reasonable opportunity and for being based on pure guess and surmises without material.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required the assessing authority, after rejecting the return under section 9(2), to hear the evidence produced by the dealer and to make the assessment on the basis of material on record. The assessing authority performs quasi-judicial functions and is bound by the principles of natural justice, including audi alteram partem. The dealer must be given a real and reasonable opportunity to produce evidence, seek time where justified, inspect relevant material, and meet any adverse material proposed to be used. An assessment cannot rest on suspicion, conjecture, or an arbitrary estimate; even where the books are rejected, the estimate must have some evidentiary foundation and the basis of the figure adopted must be disclosed.

Conclusion: The assessment was invalid, as the dealer was denied reasonable opportunity and the turnover was estimated without supporting material, in breach of natural justice and the requirements governing assessment under section 9(3).

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