Reassessment requires tangible material, not a mere formula, where prior records and later orders support accepted production figures.

Reassessment under the U.P. Trade Tax Act requires tangible material giving rise to a prima facie belief that turnover has escaped assessment; a mere theoretical chemical formula is insufficient where the original assessment records were examined and accepted, and later departmental orders also accepted the assessee's explanation. On those facts, the court treated the attempted reassessment as a change of opinion rather than a valid jurisdictional foundation, and held that the authorisation and notices under Section 21 were without jurisdiction and could not stand.

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Issues: Whether reassessment authorisation and notices under the proviso to Section 21(2) and Section 21 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948, could be sustained when the department relied only on a chemical formula and the assessment records in earlier and subsequent years showed acceptance of the assessee's production figures.

Analysis: The petitioners had produced their books of account, manufacturing details and stock particulars in the original assessments, which were thoroughly examined and accepted. On identical facts, the departmental proposal for authorisation for an earlier year had been refused as a change of opinion, and in later years the assessment, appellate and tribunal orders had accepted the assessee's explanation that the chemical formula could not be mechanically applied without considering the purity and quality of the raw material. In that background, the court held that the foundation for initiating reassessment proceedings had disappeared and that there was no relevant material giving rise to a prima facie belief that turnover had escaped assessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment authorisation and the notices issued under Section 21 were without jurisdiction and could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions succeeded and the impugned authorisation orders and notices were quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment jurisdiction cannot be invoked on the basis of a mere theoretical formula where the assessment record and later departmental decisions show no tangible material for a belief of escaped turnover and the action amounts to a change of opinion.

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