Reassessment cannot reopen a concluded sales tax assessment without fresh material showing escapement or under-assessment.

Reassessment under section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 is valid only where fresh material shows escaped turnover, under-assessment, a lower rate, or wrongly allowed exemption or deduction. The assessing authority cannot reopen a concluded assessment merely to revise the earlier reasoning or strengthen the original order after becoming functus officio. As no new material showed that the brick-kiln operated longer or that coal purchases justified a higher turnover for the same period, the reassessment rested on matters that should have been examined in the original assessment. The reassessment proceedings were therefore invalid and were quashed.

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Issues: Whether reassessment under section 21 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 was valid when the assessing authority merely sought to revise the earlier assessment by giving additional reasons without any discovery of fresh material showing escapement or under-assessment of turnover.

Analysis: Reassessment jurisdiction under section 21 can be invoked only when whole or part of the turnover has escaped assessment, has been under-assessed, has been assessed at a lower rate, or an exemption or deduction has been wrongly allowed. Once the original assessment is completed, the assessing authority becomes functus officio and cannot reopen the matter merely to improve the earlier order or supply additional reasoning. On the facts, the reassessment did not proceed on any finding that the brick-kiln had operated for a longer period or that the alleged coal purchases were used so as to justify a higher turnover for the same assessment period. The reassessment was therefore based on reconsideration of matters that could and should have been examined in the original assessment, not on any valid statutory ground for reassessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment proceedings were invalid and the initiating jurisdiction under section 21 was not lawfully exercised.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeded, the reassessment was quashed, and the assessee obtained relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment cannot be used to reopen a concluded assessment merely to recast the reasoning or strengthen the original order unless there is fresh material showing escapement or under-assessment of turnover within the statutory grounds for reassessment.

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