Reassessment requires relevant material with a live nexus; reopening on a mere change of opinion is invalid.

Reopening of assessment under section 21 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 requires a reason to believe founded on relevant material with a live nexus to the escaped assessment for the concerned year. Material that is vague, remote, or unrelated cannot justify reassessment, and where the original assessment had already examined the stock transfer claim, a later attempt based on loose papers from a subsequent survey amounted to a mere change of opinion. The approval and consequential notices were therefore invalid, and the reassessment proceedings could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether the approval and notices for reopening assessment under section 21 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 were valid when no material relating to the relevant assessment year existed and the original assessment had already examined the stock transfer claim.

Analysis: Reopening under section 21 requires the assessing authority to have a reason to believe, based on relevant material having a rational connection with the alleged escaped assessment. The material must relate to the assessment year in question and cannot be vague, remote, or unrelated. Where the original assessment had already examined the stock transfer claim in detail, a subsequent attempt to reopen the matter on the basis of loose papers found during a later survey, without establishing that those papers related to the relevant year, amounts to a mere change of opinion. Such reopening is impermissible, and in writ jurisdiction the Court can examine the existence and relevance of material, though not its sufficiency.

Conclusion: The reopening approval and the consequential notices were invalid and liable to be quashed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded, and the reassessment proceedings based on the impugned approval and notices could not be sustained in law.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment can be initiated only on relevant material having a live nexus with the escaped turnover for the concerned assessment year, and not on a mere change of opinion.

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