Revisional limitation under sales tax law: specific period in the revisional provision governs challenges to assessment legality and exemption.

Section 15(1) of the Travancore-Cochin General Sales Tax Act governed revision of an assessment order where the issue was the legality, propriety or regularity of the exemption granted on auction sales. The dispute was not one of escaped turnover, but of whether the exemption under the commission licence had been correctly allowed; accordingly, the applicable limitation was the four-year period in section 15, measured from communication of the assessment order. The three-year limitation in rule 33 applied only to escaped turnover matters and did not control this revision. The revisional power was therefore validly exercised under section 15(1).

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Issues: Whether the revisional power under section 15(1) of the Travancore-Cochin General Sales Tax Act, 1125 could be exercised after three years under rule 33 where the assessment dispute concerned the legality, propriety and regularity of exemption granted on auction sales.

Analysis: Section 15(1) empowered the revisional authority to interfere with an assessment order where illegality, impropriety or irregularity had occurred in the assessing authority's decision. The controversy was not one of escaped turnover, but of the correctness of the exemption granted under the commission licence. In such a case, the limitation applicable was that contained in section 15 itself, namely four years from the date of communication of the assessment order, and not the three-year period under rule 33, which applies to escaped turnover matters.

Conclusion: The revisional power was validly exercised under section 15(1), and the three-year limitation under rule 33 did not apply.

Ratio Decidendi: Where revision is directed against the legality, propriety or regularity of an assessment order, the specific limitation in the revisional provision governs, and the escaped-turnover limitation cannot be invoked.

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