The Tribunal has the power to pass an order of enhancement under section 36(3)(a)(i) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, not only suo motu after putting the assessee on notice, but also on a petition filed by the Revenue or its representative.

Dr. A. S. ANAND, C.J.

This tax revision case has been preferred against the order of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal dated November 25, 1981, passed in C.T.A. No. 244 of 1981. It is not necessary to go into the facts of the case, as the only question that has been canvassed before us by learned counsel for the petitioner is that the State Representative was not competent to file an enhancement petition before the Tribunal prior to November 1, 1982, when section 36(3-A) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, was inserted by Act 22 of 1982, and, therefore, any order passed on that enhancement petition by the Tribunal cannot be sustained. For what follows, we cannot agree.

2. Section 36(3-A) was introduced in the statue book by Act 22 of 1982. This section reads thus :

"Within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of notice that an appeal against the order passed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner under sub-section (3) of section 31 or an order passed by the Deputy Commissioner under sub-section (3) of section 31-A or sub-section (1) of section 32 has been filed, any assessing authority or his representative appearing before the Appellate Tribunal may file an enhancement petition or a petition for restoration of the assessment or penalty or both, fully or partially, as the case may be, in the prescribed form and in the prescribed manner against the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner as the case may be. The Appellate Tribunal may, after giving a reasonable opportunity to the appellant and the representative of the assessing authority of being heard pass such orders on the petition as it thinks fit :

Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may admit an enhancement petition or a petition for restoration of the assessment or penalty or both, fully or partially, as the case may be, presented after the expiration of the said period, if it is satisfied that the assessing authority or his representative had sufficient cause for not filing such petition within the said period." *

A plain reading of the section would show that the Legislature has placed a period of limitation for filing an enhancement petition before the Appellate Tribunal by the representative of the Revenue. The proviso to the section gives powers to the Tribunal to admit an enhancement petition, etc., presented after the expiration of the aforesaid period if it is satisfied that the assessing authority or his representative had sufficient cause for not filing such petition within the said period. This section, therefore, prescribes the period of limitation for the filing of an enhancement petition by the representative appearing for the Revenue before the Tribunal. The section, in terms, does not deal with the powers of the Tribunal to pass an order of enhancement. That power is vested in the Appellate Tribunal under section 36(3)(a)(i) of the Act. The provision reads thus :

"36(3) In disposing of an appeal, the Appellate Tribunal may, after giving the appellant a reasonable opportunity of being heard, and for sufficient reasons to be recorded in writing -

(a) in the case of an order of assessment -

(i) confirm, reduce, enhance or annul the assessment or penalty or both;" *

By the above section, in an appeal preferred by the assessee, the Tribunal has the power to decide the appeal by either confirming, reducing or even enhancing or annulling the assessment or penalty or both. Since, in an appeal preferred by the assessee under section 36, it is the entire assessment which is set at large before the Tribunal, the Tribunal has the jurisdiction to go into the correctness or otherwise of the order of the assessing authority himself and pass appropriate orders. However, where the Revenue files an enhancement petition at the hearing of the appeal filed by the assessee, it is the requirement of the principles of natural justice, that the Tribunal puts the assessee on notice of the enhancement petition before pass