Revisional power cannot revive time-barred reassessment of original tax orders; limitation cannot be bypassed indirectly.

Section 10B revisional power under the U.P. Sales Tax Act could examine only the legality or propriety of the order cancelling reassessment notices, not the original assessment orders themselves. Section 21 preserved the existing assessment or reassessment order unless varied through a valid notice, while section 21(2) fixed a four-year outer limit for assessment or reassessment from the end of the assessment year. Accordingly, once limitation had expired, the original assessment orders could not be reopened or substituted indirectly through revision, and the High Court's interference was not justified.

---

---

Issues: Whether, on the facts and in the statutory scheme of section 10B read with section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, the Commissioner could revise the order dropping reassessment proceedings and thereby reach the original assessment orders after the limitation period had expired.

Analysis: Section 21 preserved an existing assessment or reassessment order until it was varied in pursuance of a valid notice, and section 21(2) fixed the outer limit for assessment or reassessment at four years from the end of the assessment year. The revisional power under section 10B was confined to examining the legality or propriety of the order before the revisional authority, namely the order dated 29 May 2003 cancelling the reassessment notices, and to passing an order with respect to that order alone. That power did not authorise substitution of the original assessment orders in the guise of revision. What could not be achieved directly after expiry of limitation could not be achieved indirectly through revision.

Conclusion: The revisional order could not validly reopen or substitute the original assessment orders after limitation, and the interference by the High Court was not justified.

---