Revision evidence under tax rules must be considered; refusal to admit books and documents was treated as an error of law.

Rule 247 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1995 requires the revisional authority to hear the applicant and consider the accounts, documents and other evidence produced in revision; it does not permit rejection of that material merely because the dealer had previously defaulted. The text says the authority's reliance on procedural principles from the Code of Civil Procedure and rules under other enactments was misplaced because the special revision procedure under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 governed the matter. Refusing to admit the evidence was therefore treated as an error of law, and the revisional order confirming the ex parte assessment was set aside and remanded.

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Issues: Whether the revisional authority was justified in refusing to admit the books of account, documents and other evidence tendered by the dealer in revision under the West Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1995, and whether the revisional order confirming the ex parte assessment was liable to be set aside and remanded.

Analysis: Rule 247 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1995 makes the revisional authority a fact-finding authority and requires the application to be disposed of after hearing the applicant and considering the accounts, documents or evidence produced in support of the revision. The rule does not confer a discretion to reject such evidence merely because the dealer had defaulted earlier. The authority's reliance on procedural decisions under the Code of Civil Procedure and on rules from other enactments was misplaced because the special procedure under rule 247 governs revision under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994. The refusal to admit evidence therefore amounted to an error of law, and the revisional order, passed without the mandated consideration of the material sought to be produced, could not stand.

Conclusion: The refusal to admit evidence was illegal and the revisional order was rightly set aside.

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