Revisional power cannot replace reassessment: completed assessment quashed when authority tried to direct fresh enquiry beyond jurisdiction.

Revisional power could not be used to cancel a completed assessment and direct a fresh assessment where the statutory remedy lay in reassessment of escaped turnover. Applying its earlier distinction between reassessment and revision, the Gauhati High Court held that the revisional authority had crossed the limits of section 36 by enquiring into the dealer's business affairs and trenching upon the reassessment field. The revisional notice and consequential order were therefore without jurisdiction and were quashed.

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Issues: Whether the revisional notice and order cancelling the completed assessment and directing fresh assessment were valid in law and within jurisdiction.

Analysis: The assessment had been completed under the sales tax law then applicable. The revisional authority invoked the revisional power on the footing that the assessment was erroneous and prejudicial to revenue and proceeded to direct a fresh assessment after enquiry into the dealer's business affairs. The Court held that the matter was covered by the earlier decision of the same Court, which drew a distinction between reopening an assessment for escaped turnover and exercising revisional power over an assessment order. On the facts, the revisional authority could not use section 36 to trench upon the field reserved for reassessment proceedings, and the impugned action was therefore without jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The revisional notice and the consequential order were invalid and were set aside and quashed in favour of the petitioner.

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