Limitation for reassessment after appellate remand runs from receipt of the remand order, not from pending appeal without stay.
Reassessment made in pursuance of an appellate remand had to be completed within four years from the end of the year in which the remand order was received. The mere pendency of a second appeal did not suspend or extend that period, because section 17(9) permitted exclusion only for the time during which proceedings were actually stayed by a court or other competent authority. In the absence of any stay, the assessing authority could proceed on the remand order within the statutory limit. The doctrine of merger did not alter this specific limitation scheme.
Issues: Whether reassessment pursuant to an appellate remand had to be completed within four years from receipt of the appellate order, and whether mere pendency of a second appeal before the Tribunal, without any stay order, suspended or excluded that limitation period.
Analysis: Section 17(8) required assessment or reassessment made in pursuance of an appellate or revisional order to be completed within four years from the expiry of the year in which that order was received. Section 17(9) permitted exclusion only of the period during which the assessment proceedings remained stayed under the order of a court or other competent authority. The absence of any stay order meant that mere pendency of the second appeal did not prevent the assessing authority from acting on the remand order. The doctrine of merger did not advance the assessee's case, because it governed the effect of the superior forum's decision on the lower forum's order and did not alter the specific statutory limitation scheme.
Conclusion: The limitation period under section 17(8) ran from receipt of the appellate remand order and was not suspended by the pending second appeal in the absence of a stay.
Final Conclusion: The direction of the learned single judge was unsustainable, and the assessing authority was entitled to proceed in accordance with the remand order subject to the statutory time limit.
Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute allows exclusion only for proceedings actually stayed by a court or competent authority, pendency of an appeal without stay does not extend the limitation for reassessment pursuant to an appellate order.
TaxTMI 
AI Drafter ✕
TaxTMI 
