Statutory turnover exemption requires independent examination of evidence; remand cannot be treated as infructuous without fresh consideration.

Where exemption under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act depended on satisfying the statutory turnover condition, the assessing authority had to independently examine the assessee's evidence and could not treat the earlier remand as infructuous merely because a later Division Bench decision had displaced the earlier basis. The assessee remained entitled to an opportunity to produce supporting documents, and the matter had to be decided afresh on merits after considering those materials. The notice seeking to restore the earlier levy on the footing that the remand had lost effect was therefore unsustainable, and the issue was remitted for fresh adjudication.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority could treat the earlier remand as infructuous because of the later Division Bench decision and whether the assessee was entitled to an independent opportunity to produce documents to establish that its turnover was below the statutory threshold under the TNVAT Act.

Analysis: Exemption for the relevant goods flowed from Section 15 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 read with Entry 68 of Schedule IV, subject to the turnover condition. The remand ordered by the revisional authority was based on the statutory entitlement to establish eligibility for exemption and not merely on the earlier single-judge reasoning. The assessing authority, therefore, could not decline to proceed on the footing that the remand had become infructuous solely because the later judgment had erased the earlier findings. The assessee was entitled to a further opportunity to produce supporting documents, and the authority was required to decide the matter independently on merits after considering those materials.

Conclusion: The notice proposing to restore the earlier levy on the premise that the remand had become infructuous was unsustainable, and the matter was remitted to the assessing authority for fresh consideration after granting the assessee an opportunity to produce documents.

Final Conclusion: The assessment issue was sent back for independent adjudication on the statutory exemption claim after affording procedural fairness to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where exemption depends on satisfaction of a statutory turnover condition, the assessing authority must independently examine the assessee's evidence and cannot refuse consideration merely because a prior judicial basis for remand has been dislodged.

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