Reassessment cannot override a final appellate exemption; a contrary notice on packing charges was beyond jurisdiction.

Section 12-A reassessment cannot be used to reopen a tax exemption already finally granted by the appellate authority. Where packing charges had been held exempt in appeal, that determination bound the assessing authority and could not be ignored through a fresh notice proposing to tax the same charges. The proper course was to challenge the appellate order before the appropriate forum, not to issue a reassessment notice contrary to that order. A notice issued in defiance of the appellate decision was therefore beyond jurisdiction and arbitrary, and was liable to be quashed.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority could invoke section 12-A to issue a notice proposing to tax packing charges after the appellate authority had granted exemption on those charges.

Analysis: Section 12-A authorises reassessment where turnover has escaped assessment, been under-assessed, or exemption has been wrongly allowed. Once the appellate authority had finally determined that packing charges were exempt, that determination held the field and could not be reopened by the assessing authority through a notice under section 12-A. The remedy against the appellate order lay in challenging that order before the proper forum, not by the assessing authority sitting in judgment over it. A notice issued in disregard of the appellate decision was therefore beyond jurisdiction and arbitrary.

Conclusion: The notice proposing to tax packing charges was without jurisdiction and liable to be quashed.

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