Transit document discrepancies do not justify penalty where prescribed papers accompany the goods and are otherwise valid.

Penalty under section 28A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act cannot be sustained where goods in transit are accompanied by the prescribed documents and the dispute is only about discrepancies between those documents. The check-post authority's enquiry is confined to whether valid documents required by law accompany the vehicle; it cannot levy penalty merely because invoice, airway bill, bills of entry, or related papers do not fully match, if their existence and validity are not in doubt. On that basis, the appellate order setting aside the penalty was not erroneous or prejudicial to the Revenue, so revision under section 22A(1) was not justified.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 28A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 could be sustained when the goods were accompanied by prescribed documents but there were discrepancies between the documents, and whether the revisional authority was justified in interfering with the appellate order as erroneous and prejudicial to the Revenue.

Analysis: Section 28A requires the person in charge of the goods vehicle to carry prescribed documents with the goods in transit. The controlling enquiry for the check-post authority is whether the vehicle is accompanied by valid documents required by law. Mere discrepancies between the invoice, airway bill, bills of entry, and related papers, without dispute as to the existence or validity of those documents, do not by themselves confer jurisdiction to levy penalty. The statutory scheme does not permit the check-post authority to proceed on matters beyond the limited transit-check function. Since the appellate authority found compliance with the document requirement and set aside the penalty, that order could not be treated as erroneous or prejudicial to the Revenue so as to justify revision under section 22A(1).

Conclusion: The penalty order was unsustainable, and the revisional interference was not justified. The assessee succeeded.

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