Limitation on sales tax review powers barred reopening after four years under the Bengal Finance Act.

Section 11(2a) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 was treated as governing a review order under section 20(4), because such a review was regarded in substance as an assessment order under section 11(1). Applying analogous Supreme Court reasoning on similar sales tax provisions, the Court stated that the statutory time-limit extends to appellate or revisional assessment orders and that the Legislature could not have intended an unlimited power of review. The later 1959 proviso was not treated as controlling the earlier position. The limitation period therefore barred the proposed review after four years from the end of the assessment year.

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Issues: Whether the bar of limitation in section 11(2a) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 applies to a review order made under section 20(4) of the Act, so as to prevent the Commissioner from reopening an assessment after the expiry of four years from the end of the assessment year.

Analysis: The Court applied the reasoning of the Supreme Court on analogous provisions under another sales tax statute, where an assessment made by appellate or revisional authority was treated as an assessment under the charging and assessment provision itself, and the statutory time-limit was held to govern such orders. On that parity of reasoning, a review order under section 20(4) was held to be in substance an assessment order under section 11(1). The Court further held that the Legislature could not be taken to have intended an unrestricted power of review without any temporal limit, and that the later proviso introduced in 1959 could not govern the pre-1959 position relevant to the case.

Conclusion: The limitation in section 11(2a) applied to the proposed review, and the Commissioner had no authority to review the order after the expiry of four years. The writ petition was therefore allowed and prohibition issued against further proceedings on the review notice.

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