Belated revised return beyond prescribed time is invalid and does not attract penalty under the return penalty provision.

A revised return filed beyond the prescribed time under section 17(2) of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 is not a valid revised return in law. Because the filing was several years late, section 17(3), which governs penalty within the return scheme, did not apply to that belated filing. The proper approach was to treat the revised return as ineffective and proceed under the Act by any other permissible assessment or penalty route, but not to impose penalty under section 17(3) on the footing of a valid late revised return.

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Issues: Whether delay in submission of a revised return beyond the prescribed time under section 17(2) of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 could attract penalty under section 17(3) of the Act.

Analysis: Section 17(2) permitted a revised return only in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time. On the facts, the revised return was filed several years late and therefore could not be treated as a valid revised return in law. In such a situation, section 17(3), which dealt with penalty in relation to the return scheme under section 17, had no application to the belated revised return. The proper course would have been to ignore the invalid revised return and proceed according to law, including any other permissible assessment or penalty consequence, but not to invoke section 17(3) on the footing that a valid revised return had been filed late.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 17(3) could not be levied for delay in filing the revised return beyond the prescribed time, and the question was answered in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a revised return is filed beyond the prescribed time, it is not a valid revised return and delay in such filing does not attract penalty under the provision governing returns unless the statute expressly so provides.

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