Limitation for estate duty reassessment: revised accounts do not revive time-barred proceedings, and rectification cannot replace valid notice.

Reassessment under the Estate Duty Act, 1953 was treated as time-barred because section 73A(b) required proceedings to begin within three years of the original assessment, and a later revised account did not extend or revive that period. Sections 59 and 61 could not validate the proceedings: section 61 was confined to rectification of mistakes apparent from the record, and no statutory notice under section 59 had been issued for reassessment. The Tribunal's view that the reassessment was invalid was therefore upheld.

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Issues: (i) Whether the reassessment was barred by limitation under section 73A(b) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953; (ii) Whether sections 59 and 61 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 applied to the proceedings.

Issue (i): Whether the reassessment was barred by limitation under section 73A(b) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953.

Analysis: Section 73A(b) prescribed that no proceedings for reassessment could be commenced after three years from the date of the original assessment. The original assessment had been completed long before the impugned reassessment, and the later filing of a revised account did not extend or revive the statutory period for initiating reassessment proceedings.

Conclusion: The reassessment was barred by time under section 73A(b) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953.

Issue (ii): Whether sections 59 and 61 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 applied to the proceedings.

Analysis: Section 61 applied only to rectification of mistakes apparent from the record, and no such mistake or notice under that provision was shown. Likewise, no notice had been issued under section 59 for reassessment. In the absence of statutory initiation under either provision, those sections could not sustain the proceedings.

Conclusion: Sections 59 and 61 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 did not apply to validate the reassessment.

Final Conclusion: The reassessment could not be sustained in law, and the reference was answered in favour of the Revenue's challenge in the sense that the Tribunal's view on invalidity of the reassessment was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A reassessment under the Estate Duty Act, 1953 cannot be initiated after the expiry of the statutory limitation period, and a revised account filed beyond that period does not revive jurisdiction; rectification provisions apply only to mistakes apparent from the record and cannot substitute for a valid statutory notice for reassessment.

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