Best judgment assessment requires material on record; mere failure to maintain manufacture accounts cannot justify enhancing disclosed turnover.

A best judgment assessment cannot raise disclosed taxable turnover beyond the recorded figure unless the enhancement is supported by material on record. A mere failure to maintain the manufacture account, by itself, is only a procedural default and does not justify inflating turnover without evidentiary foundation. If the non-compliance is considered actionable, the proper course is to invoke the penal provision rather than increase turnover on conjecture. The revision therefore succeeds, the turnover enhancement is set aside, and relief is granted to the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal could enhance the taxable turnover above the disclosed turnover in the absence of material justifying such enhancement, merely because the dealer had failed to maintain the manufacture account required by law.

Analysis: The revision concerned a best judgment assessment made after rejection of the account books for non-maintenance of the manufacture account. The Tribunal treated the lapse as technical, yet enhanced the turnover above the disclosed figure without indicating any material on which the enhancement was based. A best judgment assessment must rest on material available on record, and an assessee's procedural or technical default by itself does not justify an increase in disclosed turnover. If the authorities considered the non-compliance actionable, the proper course was to invoke the penal provision, not to inflate the turnover without evidentiary foundation.

Conclusion: The Tribunal was not justified in enhancing the taxable turnover beyond the disclosed amount and the issue is answered in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeds, the enhancement of turnover is set aside, and the matter stands for consequential action in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: A best judgment assessment cannot enhance disclosed turnover unless supported by material on record, and a mere technical breach of accounting requirements does not by itself justify such enhancement.

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