Retrospective rectification amendment cannot reopen final income-tax assessments absent clear legislative language.

An amendment deeming inclusion in a partner's assessment, based on a later firm assessment, to be a rectification of mistake and shifting the limitation point was treated as prospective where vested rights were affected. The unamended law did not permit reopening a final assessment on the basis of facts emerging from a later firm assessment, because that was not a mistake apparent from the record. The deeming date in section 1(2) was not read to enlarge the retrospective reach of the amendment, and the wider reopening provisions elsewhere in the Act showed that broader retrospective operation was not intended. Rectification orders against final assessments made before 1 April 1952 were therefore without jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether the amendment inserted by the Income-tax (Amendment) Act, 1953, authorising rectification of a completed partner's assessment on the basis of the firm's later assessment, could be applied to reopen assessments that had already become final before 1 April 1952.

Analysis: The amendment created a new legal fiction by deeming such inclusion or correction to be a rectification of a mistake apparent from the record and also altered the point from which limitation was to run. The earlier law did not permit reopening of a final assessment on the basis of a later assessment of the firm, because the supposed error was not apparent from the assessment record itself. The Court applied the settled rule that a statute affecting vested rights is presumed to be prospective unless retrospective effect is clearly expressed or necessarily implied, and held that the deeming date in section 1(2) could not enlarge the retrospective reach of the amendment beyond the language used. The specific reopening provisions elsewhere in the amending Act also indicated that wider retrospective operation was not intended.

Conclusion: The amendment was held not to authorise reopening of assessments finally completed before 1 April 1952, and the impugned rectification orders were without jurisdiction.

Final Conclusion: Completed income-tax assessments that had attained finality before the effective date of the amendment could not be reopened under the new deeming provision, and the writ petition succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: An amendment affecting vested rights will not be applied retrospectively to reopen a final assessment unless the legislative language clearly so provides, and a later discovery from another assessment is not a mistake apparent from the record under the unamended provision.

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