Invalid reassessment notice with less than statutory response time cannot sustain proceedings founded on it.

A statutory notice issued to reopen an assessment was jurisdictional in nature and had to allow not less than thirty days for filing the return. A notice granting only six days failed to meet that mandatory requirement, so it was invalid. Because the notice was the foundation of the reassessment proceedings, its invalidity vitiated the reassessment order, which could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether a reassessment notice requiring the assessee to file a return within less than thirty days was invalid and, if so, whether the reassessment order based on it could stand.

Analysis: The statutory scheme under the repealed and re-enacted agricultural income-tax provisions required service of a valid notice as a condition precedent to reopening an assessment, and the notice had to allow not less than thirty days for furnishing the return. A notice giving only six days to respond did not satisfy that mandatory requirement. Since the notice was the foundation of the reassessment proceedings, its invalidity vitiated the subsequent reassessment order.

Conclusion: The notice was invalid and the reassessment could not be sustained. The issue is decided in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory notice for reopening an assessment is jurisdictional in nature, and if it grants less than the minimum prescribed time to file the return, the notice is invalid and all proceedings founded on it are void.

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