Rebuttable deemed-sale presumption requires authorities to examine delivery evidence before sustaining tax assessment

The deemed-sale presumption under Section 46(15)(d) of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 arises if the transit pass is not duly surrendered at the exit check post, but it remains rebuttable. Documents such as a check-gate certificate and consignee confirmations showing delivery outside Assam were relevant rebuttal material. Taxing authorities must examine that evidence before sustaining an assessment; failure to give meaningful consideration to the rebuttal evidence vitiates the revisional order and requires fresh reconsideration of whether the presumption has been displaced.

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Issues: Whether the statutory presumption of deemed sale under Section 46(15)(d) of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 stood rebutted by the documents produced by the transporter, and whether the taxing authorities were bound to examine that evidence before sustaining the assessment.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required surrender of the transit pass duly endorsed at the exit check post, failing which a presumption of sale within Assam could arise. That presumption, however, was rebuttable. The transporter produced material including the Byrnihat check-gate certificate and confirmations from the consignee showing delivery of the vehicles outside Assam. Those documents were relevant to the question whether the deemed-sale presumption was displaced. The assessment and revisional orders were found to have proceeded on the presumption alone, without any meaningful appraisal of the rebuttal evidence or consideration of whether it constituted convincing material to dislodge the deemed-sale inference.

Conclusion: The authorities' failure to examine the rebuttal evidence vitiated the impugned revisional order, which was quashed and the matter remanded for fresh reconsideration of whether the presumption under Section 46(15)(d) of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 had been rebutted.

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