Assessment limitation does not automatically bar prosecution for an untrue return; trial must test the incriminating material.

Expiry of the five-year assessment period for escaped turnover under the sales tax law is described as a limitation on assessment, not as an automatic bar to prosecution for wilfully filing an untrue return. The commentary states that rule 26(16) concerns preservation of accounts, while prosecution under section 45(2)(a) may still proceed if recovered material is sufficient to show the return was false, even if that material surfaced after five years. The correctness of the return and the evidentiary value of the recovered documents are to be tested at trial, rather than rejected at the threshold on a preliminary view.

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Issues: Whether the expiry of the five-year period for assessing escaped turnover under the sales tax law barred prosecution for wilfully submitting an untrue return under the penal provision of the Act.

Analysis: Section 16 was held to be a provision fixing the limitation for assessment of escaped turnover, while rule 26(16) concerned preservation of accounts. The two provisions were not treated as creating an automatic bar to prosecution. The Court held that a prosecution under section 45(2)(a) could still be maintained where the incriminating material itself was sufficient to show that the return was untrue, even if the material came to light after the five-year period. The correctness of the returns and the evidentiary value of the materials recovered had to be examined in the trial and could not be rejected at the threshold on a preliminary view.

Conclusion: The prosecution was not barred by limitation, and the acquittal on the preliminary ground could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded, the acquittals were set aside, and the cases were restored for disposal according to law.

Ratio Decidendi: A limitation period for assessment of escaped turnover does not, by itself, extinguish the power to prosecute for filing an untrue return where the prosecution can rely on material sufficient to establish the offence independently of the assessee's accounts.

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