Pending assessment proceedings are not escaped assessment; limitation for escaped assessment does not apply while valid proceedings continue.

Assessment proceedings validly initiated under section 8 of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950 remained pending after remand, so the turnover could not be treated as having escaped assessment. The subsequent notices were a continuation of the same assessment process, and section 10, which applies only to escaped assessment, had no application while those proceedings were alive. The writ challenge to the pending assessment proceedings was therefore unsustainable under article 226, and the assessment process was allowed to continue.

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Issues: Whether assessment proceedings initiated under section 8 of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950, could be treated as a case of escaped assessment so as to attract the three-year limitation under section 10, and whether the writ petition challenging the pending assessment proceedings was maintainable.

Analysis: The assessment was first initiated when the dealer failed to submit returns and a best-judgment assessment was made under section 8(1)(b). That assessment was later set aside in revision with a remand for fresh assessment after notice and hearing. The subsequent notices and proceedings were held to be a continuation of the same assessment process, which had not come to an end. Once assessment proceedings are validly initiated under section 8, the turnover cannot be said to have escaped assessment while those proceedings remain pending. Section 10, which deals with escaped assessment, therefore had no application. The earlier decisions on the commencement and pendency of assessment proceedings supported this view.

Conclusion: The assessment proceedings were legally valid, were not barred by limitation under section 10, and the challenge under article 226 failed.

Final Conclusion: The High Court's writ relief was unsustainable, and the assessment proceedings against the dealer for the relevant year were allowed to continue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where assessment proceedings have been validly initiated and remain pending, the case is not one of escaped assessment, and the limitation provision governing escaped assessment does not apply.

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