Rectification power limited to apparent mistakes; later circular could not reopen completed assessments or withdraw composition benefit.

Rectification under section 25-A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 is limited to an obvious mistake apparent from the record and cannot be used to reopen a completed assessment, substitute a different view on the same facts, or revise an earlier decision by a change of opinion. The assessing authority must exercise this quasi-judicial power independently and cannot act under a later circular as though it were a retrospective amendment. A subsequent circular cannot justify disturbing completed assessments or withdrawing composition benefit where eligibility had already been accepted. On that reasoning, notices issued to amend the assessments were held to be without jurisdiction and invalid.

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Issues: Whether notices issued under section 25-A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 to amend completed assessments and withdraw composition benefit were valid when they were based on a subsequent circular and not on a mistake apparent from the record.

Analysis: Rectification under section 25-A is confined to an obvious and patent mistake apparent from the record and cannot be used to reopen an assessment on a debatable point or to substitute a different view of the same facts. The power is quasi-judicial and must be exercised independently by the assessing authority, without being controlled by instructions or directions of a higher authority. A later circular cannot operate as a retrospective legislative amendment or as a basis for disturbing completed assessments, and the authority could not rely on it to revise assessments already concluded. As regards the later assessment, the authority had already formed the view that the dealer was eligible for composition benefit, and that view could not be changed in rectification proceedings merely because a circular had later come to notice.

Conclusion: The notices were without jurisdiction and invalid, and the challenge succeeded in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Rectification can be made only for a mistake apparent from the record, and it cannot be used to revise a completed assessment on a change of opinion or on the basis of a subsequent circular.

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