Revisional power cannot replace reassessment when escaped turnover is based on later-acquired material and limitation has expired.

Revisional power under section 10-B of the U.P. Sales Tax Act was confined to testing the legality or propriety of an assessment order on the record available when that order was made. It could not be used as a substitute for section 21 to bring escaped turnover to tax on the basis of information obtained later, especially where reassessment under section 21 was time-barred. In the absence of any illegality or impropriety in the original assessment on the then-existing record, the later material did not justify revision. The revisional order and notices were therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the revisional power under section 10-B of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 could be used to bring to tax turnover alleged to have escaped assessment on the basis of material gathered after the original assessment orders, when action under section 21 had become time-barred.

Analysis: The revisional power under section 10-B is confined to examining the legality or propriety of an order passed by a subordinate authority on the basis of the record as it existed when that order was made. It is not an alternative to section 21, which specifically authorises assessment of escaped turnover within the prescribed limitation. Where the alleged escapement is discovered only from later-acquired information not available on the original record, the assessment cannot be said to have been illegal or improper for not taking that information into account. In the absence of any finding that the original assessment orders suffered from illegality or impropriety on the material then on record, section 10-B could not be invoked as a substitute for reassessment under section 21.

Conclusion: The use of section 10-B for reassessing escaped turnover on the basis of subsequent information was impermissible, and the impugned revisional order and notices were unsustainable.

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