In a best judgment assessment, the assessment order should contain a clear indication of the material on which the turnover is fixed, rates are adopted, and the amount of tax is determined, so that the assessee may know the facts and make representations, if any, on those matters.

ANANTANARAYANANA AYYAR, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner is a registered dealer in cloth. He feels aggrieved with the order passed by the Sales-Tax Appellate Tribunal, Andhra pradesh, dated 23rd December, 1957 in T. A. No. 479 of 1957. The petitioner has filed this petition raising the following questions of law for decision by this Court :-" (1 ). Whether in the circumstances of the case, the assessment to the best judgment is bad in that no material is disclosed to the assessee and no effective opportunity of hearing was given to him. (2) Whether in the circumstances of the case, the assessment, being arbitrary and a pure conjecture and based on no material on record, is bad and liable to be set aside. "the relevant facts of the case are as follows :- for the assessment year 1955-56 the assessing officer fixed a provisional assessment of rs. 6,600. The petitioner accordingly paid that sum. He failed to submit the annual return in Form A for final assessment of that year 1955-56. The Sales Tax Officer repeatedly called on the petitioner to produce his accounts or appear before him and posted the case to various different dates 19th December, 1956, 5th January, 1957 and 15th February, 1957 ; the party did not appear or produce his accounts before the Sales Tax Officer. The latter thereupon treated the assessee as ex parte and proceeded to pass an assessment order in which he has stated as follows :- i made such enquiries as i consider necessary. I, therefore, make ex parte assessment under section 12 (3) (sic) of the Hyderabad General Sales Tax Act determining the following turnover for final 1955-56 (Diwali) to the best of my knowledge and judgment :-

( 2 ) THE assessee took the matter on appeal to the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax (Appellate), Hyderabad, urging among other things as follows :-"your petitioner submits that he is not given sufficient opportunity to produce the books before the Sales Tax Officer and requests that he may be given an opportunity for the same. The estimation made by the Sales Tax Officer is very high and quite arbitrary. "

( 3 ) THE Deputy Commissioner dismissed the appeal The petitioner filed an appeal before the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal. The latter also dismissed the appeal. We are dealing below with the grounds actually urged by the petitioner before us. Though the petitioner urged before the Deputy Commissioner and the Sales tax Appellate Tribunal that he ought to have been given one more opportunity for filing accounts, in this Court no such plea was put forward. Learned advocate for the petitioner frankly stated that he was not taking any such ground in this Court. He admitted that the refusal of the adjournment by the Sales Tax Officer on 15th february, 1957, may be treated as a good basis for an ex parte assessment, but contended that the assessment order suffered from the defects that no material is disclosed in it as the basis of the assessment and that no opportunity was given to him to represent as regards the quantum of turnover and tax which the Officer fixed. Rule 13 of the Hyderabad General-Sales Tax Act Rules runs as follows :-"13. If no return is submitted by the dealer as required by rule 11 or if the return submitted by him appears to the assessing authority to be incorrect or incomplete, such authority shall, after making such enquiry as he considers necessary, determine the turnover of the dealer to the best of his judgment, and fix provisionally the annual tax or taxes payable at the rate or rates specified in section 3, section 4, section 6, or notified under sub-section (1) of section 7 as the case may be. 14. Where any return submitted by a dealer appears to the assessing authority to be incorrect or incomplete, the assessing authority shall, before taking action under rule 13 issue a notice to the dealer calling upon him to produce his accounts and prove the correctness and completeness of his return at a time and place to be specified in the notice. 16. (3) If no return is

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