Late return filing shifts limitation from section 39(6) to escaped-assessment provisions, defeating the time-bar objection.

A return filed after the statutory due date under section 35 of the Agricultural Income-tax Act does not fall within section 39(6), so the two-year assessment limit for returns filed under that provision is inapplicable. Where the assessee fails to file within the prescribed time, the Explanation to section 39(6) directs application of section 41, which governs escaped assessment and allows assessment or reassessment within ten years. On that basis, the limitation objection failed and the assessment was held not time-barred.

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Issues: Whether the assessment was barred by limitation under section 39(6) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1991, or whether the case was governed by section 41 because the return was filed after the due date prescribed under section 35.

Analysis: Section 39(6) applies to assessments of returns filed under section 35 and requires completion within two years from receipt of the return. The return in question was filed voluntarily after the due date for filing the return under section 35(1), and therefore could not be treated as a return contemplated by section 39(6). The Explanation to section 39(6), inserted by the Finance Act, 2000, makes it clear that where a person liable to file a return fails to do so within the prescribed time, the time-limit under section 41 applies. Section 41 permits assessment or reassessment within ten years where income has escaped assessment.

Conclusion: The assessment was not time-barred, section 41 applied, and the limitation objection failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A return filed beyond the statutory due date under section 35 does not attract the two-year limitation in section 39(6); in such cases, the escaped-assessment provision under section 41 governs limitation.

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