Revisional power cannot start a fresh penalty proceeding; penalty must be imposed only at the statutory stage prescribed.

A revisional authority cannot initiate a fresh penalty proceeding under the guise of suo motu revision unless it is fully exercising revisional power over an existing subordinate order. Section 57 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 permits supervisory revision of a record already before the authority, while section 36(2) confines penalty to the assessment, reassessment, appeal, or revision stage fixed by statute. Because no revisional order was being passed in relation to an existing order, penalty could not be levied for the first time under section 36(2)(c); the reference was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the revisional authority could, in the purported exercise of suo motu revisional powers, initiate proceedings and impose penalty for the first time under section 36(2)(c) without revising any existing order under the Act.

Analysis: Section 57 of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 confers a supervisory revisional power to call for and examine the record of an order passed by a subordinate authority and to pass such order thereon as is just and proper. Section 36(2), on the other hand, specifically authorises imposition of penalty only at the stage of assessing or reassessing tax, or while passing an order in appeal or revision. The stage for exercising the penalty power is therefore fixed by the statute itself. Where no order under section 36 had been made by a subordinate authority and no revisional order under section 57 was being passed in relation to an assessment or other order, penalty could not be initiated independently as a fresh proceeding under the guise of revision.

Conclusion: The revisional authority had no jurisdiction to levy penalty for the first time under section 36(2)(c) in the absence of a revisional order; the answer to the reference was in the negative and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A revisional authority may impose penalty under section 36(2) only while lawfully exercising revisional power over an existing subordinate order and not by commencing an independent penalty proceeding outside the statutory stage prescribed for such levy.

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