Reassessment versus revision: escaped assessment cannot be pursued under revisional power when the statute provides a separate reassessment route.

Section 31 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 governs reassessment of turnover that has been under-assessed or has escaped assessment, while section 40 confers a separate revisional power on the Commissioner to examine the legality or propriety of existing proceedings or orders. An escaped-assessment issue cannot be recast as a revisional matter under section 40, and revision is not available merely because turnover is said to have escaped assessment. Because the notices relied only on escaped assessment of hiring and service charges and did not identify any specific illegality or impropriety in the assessment orders, the revisional power was invoked mechanically. The revisional proceedings were therefore without jurisdiction and the revisional and appellate orders were liable to be quashed.

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Issues: Whether proceedings under section 40 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 could be used to revise completed assessments on the ground of escaped assessment and whether the revisional orders were valid.

Analysis: Section 31 of the Act confers power on the Assessing Authority to reassess turnover that has been under-assessed or has escaped assessment within the prescribed period. Section 40 confers a distinct revisional power on the Commissioner, confined to examining the legality or propriety of pending proceedings or orders already made. The two provisions operate in different fields and are intended for different situations. A case of escaped assessment falls within the exclusive domain of reassessment under section 31 and cannot be brought within section 40 by describing it as a matter of legality or propriety. The notices in question themselves showed that revision was initiated only on the footing that hiring and service charges had escaped assessment, without identifying any specific illegality or impropriety in the assessment orders, indicating a mechanical invocation of revisional power.

Conclusion: The revisional proceedings under section 40 were without jurisdiction, and the revisional and appellate orders were liable to be quashed.

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