Limitation for reassessment under sales tax law cannot be applied retrospectively to revive a time-barred pre-revision notice.

Section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act permitted reassessment of escaped turnover only within five years from the expiry of the relevant year, and the amended limitation wording introduced by Act 22 of 2002 was held to apply prospectively. A pre-revision notice issued after that period, where the original assessment had been completed before the amendment, was therefore time-barred and could not be sustained. The availability of an alternative statutory remedy did not prevent writ interference where the notice itself was barred by limitation.

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Issues: Whether the pre-revision notice proposing reassessment was barred by limitation under Section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, and whether the existence of an alternative statutory remedy precluded writ interference.

Analysis: Section 16(1)(a) empowered reassessment of escaped turnover only within five years from the expiry of the year to which the tax related. On the facts, the assessment year had already expired beyond that period when the notice was issued, and the original assessment order had been made before the amendment introduced by Act 22 of 2002. The amended language, which shifted the starting point of limitation to the date of the final assessment order, was held to operate prospectively and could not be applied to sustain a notice issued in respect of a pre-amendment assessment. Since the notice was statutorily time-barred, the existence of an alternate remedy did not bar exercise of writ jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The pre-revision notice was barred by limitation and was quashed. The writ petition was allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: An amended limitation provision governing reassessment cannot be applied retrospectively to a completed assessment made before the amendment, and a time-barred notice may be interfered with in writ jurisdiction notwithstanding an alternative remedy.

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