Bona fide clerical omission defeats sales tax penalty where books disclosed the transaction and no wilful suppression was shown.

Penalty under section 12(5) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act could not be sustained where a small turnover was omitted from the monthly return because of a bona fide clerical mistake. The sale had been entered in the books, occurred on a holiday, and was left out because the return was prepared from sale bills rather than the sales account. Bona fides were a relevant consideration in a penalty matter, and the surrounding facts supported inadvertence rather than wilful suppression. The revisional authority failed to examine that question, and penalty was therefore held unjustified.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 12(5) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act could be sustained for omission to disclose a small turnover in the monthly return when the omission was asserted to be a bona fide clerical mistake.

Analysis: The omission related to a solitary sale of a small amount which had occurred on a holiday and had been entered in the books, but was left out of the return because the return was prepared from sale bills instead of the sales account. The appellate authority had treated the lapse as a clerical mistake and found no wilfulness or deliberateness, but the revisional authority did not examine that question at all. In a penalty matter of this kind, the bona fides of the assessee are a relevant consideration, and the surrounding facts here supported the inference that the omission was inadvertent rather than deliberate.

Conclusion: Penalty was not justified, and the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Even where deliberate concealment is not a necessary ingredient for penalty under section 12(5), bona fides must be examined, and a bona fide clerical omission does not warrant penalty.

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