Limitation for reassessment after appellate reopening continues to apply, and time-barred orders cannot be sustained.

Where an ex parte assessment is set aside by the first appellate authority and fresh assessment is directed after hearing the dealer, the limitation period for completing the assessment remains applicable to the reassessment proceedings under section 21(5) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948. Applying the Full Bench view, the Court held that the reopened matter did not escape the statutory time limit, and the reassessment orders passed beyond that period were barred by limitation. The challenge to the Tribunal's order therefore failed, and the reassessment orders were quashed.

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Issues: Whether, after reopening of ex parte assessment orders by the first appellate authority, the reassessment orders were governed by the limitation prescribed under section 21(5) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948.

Analysis: The assessment orders had initially been passed ex parte. Applications under section 30 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 were rejected, but the appellate authority reopened the matter, set aside the orders under section 30, and directed fresh assessment after hearing the dealer. The reassessment orders were then challenged as time-barred. The Court followed the Full Bench view that once the case is reopened by the first appellate authority, the limitation under section 21(5) continues to apply to the fresh assessment proceedings, and the impugned orders had admittedly been passed beyond that period.

Conclusion: The reassessment orders were barred by limitation and were rightly quashed.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the Tribunal's order failed, and the assessment orders could not be sustained on limitation grounds.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a case is reopened by the first appellate authority, the limitation prescribed for making the assessment remains applicable to the fresh assessment order.

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