Direct demand on admitted unpaid tax is valid where a correct return already fixes liability, without a fresh assessment order.

A correct and complete return that already shows the tax payable can justify immediate demand and recovery without a fresh assessment order; a further assessment is needed only where no return is filed, the return is incorrect or incomplete, or escapement and penalty provisions apply. The note also states that where the record is insufficient and the High Court has not examined the facts in detail, the appropriate course is remand for rehearing and decision in accordance with law. The central principle is that statutory liability may be enforced directly when the amount payable is admitted and quantified in the return itself.

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Issues: (i) Whether, where the operator had filed returns that were accepted as correct and complete but the tax shown in those returns had not been paid, the Tax Officer was required to make a separate assessment order before issuing a notice of demand. (ii) Whether the remaining appeals, in which the High Court had not examined the facts and proceedings under the Act in detail, should be decided finally or sent back for reconsideration.

Issue (i): Whether, where the operator had filed returns that were accepted as correct and complete but the tax shown in those returns had not been paid, the Tax Officer was required to make a separate assessment order before issuing a notice of demand.

Analysis: The statutory scheme distinguished between cases where no return was filed, or the return was incorrect or incomplete, and cases where a proper return had been filed and accepted. In the former class, the Tax Officer had to act under the assessment machinery in section 7, or under sections 8 and 9 where tax had escaped assessment or penalty was to be levied. In the latter class, the amount payable was already quantified in the return itself, and the Act did not require a further assessment order before demand and recovery. The notice of demand could therefore issue straightaway for unpaid tax shown in a correct return.

Conclusion: No separate assessment order was necessary before issuing the notice of demand in such cases, and the challenge to the demand notices failed.

Issue (ii): Whether the remaining appeals, in which the High Court had not examined the facts and proceedings under the Act in detail, should be decided finally or sent back for reconsideration.

Analysis: Those matters involved proceedings of the kind contemplated by section 7 and notices issued after orders said to have been made by the Tax Officer, but the High Court had not examined each case on its own facts. Since the record did not permit a conclusive determination on those issues, further examination by the High Court was required.

Conclusion: Those appeals were allowed and the matters were remanded to the High Court for rehearing and decision in accordance with law.

Final Conclusion: The judgment upheld the power to recover admitted but unpaid tax without first making a fresh assessment order, while sending the fact-specific matters back for reconsideration.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute makes the liability and amount payable clear from a correct return already filed, a further assessment order is not a prerequisite to issuing a demand notice; a separate assessment is required only where the return is absent, incorrect, incomplete, or where escapement or penalty proceedings are involved.

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