Retrospective tax amendment revives power to reopen concluded assessments where the statutory language clearly so provides.

A clear fiscal amendment extending the revisional period to six years from 1 November 1971 was held to operate retrospectively and to cover assessments already completed under the earlier four-year limit. The operative date and express wording showed legislative intent to revive the power to reopen concluded assessments, and the Court declined to read down the provision to exclude time-barred matters. The result was that completed assessments could validly be revised despite having become final before the amendment, because clear retrospectivity in an amending tax provision extends to concluded matters when that is the plain meaning.

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Issues: Whether the amendment to Rule 80(5)(ii) of the Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1941, read with the amended Section 26(1) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, authorized reopening of assessments which had already become time-barred and final before the amendment.

Analysis: The amended notification expressly made the enhanced six-year period operative from 1 November 1971. The decisive question was whether this language evinced a clear legislative intent to revive the power to reopen assessments that had already attained finality under the earlier four-year limit. The Court held that where the language of the amending provision is clear, it must be given full effect, and retrospectivity may extend to completed assessments if that is the plain meaning. The notification, by specifying an operative date and extending the revisional period to six years, covered assessments that had been completed earlier as well as those still within limitation, and there was no warrant to read down the provision by excluding assessments already time-barred.

Conclusion: The amended rule operated retrospectively from 1 November 1971 and validly authorized reopening of the respondents' completed assessments, even though the earlier period of four years had expired.

Final Conclusion: A clear and express retrospective amendment can revive the power to revise concluded assessments where the language of the amendment so requires.

Ratio Decidendi: An amending fiscal provision will be applied retrospectively to completed and time-barred assessments when its language expressly or by necessary implication shows an intention to do so, and such clear retrospectivity is not curtailed merely because the prior limitation period had expired.

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