Reassessment based on later judicial view cannot reopen a concluded assessment absent concealment or escapement.

Reassessment under section 21 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 is permissible only where income or turnover has escaped assessment. Where the Revenue relies solely on a subsequent judicial view to reopen a concluded assessment, and no suppression or concealment of facts is alleged, the reopening amounts only to a change of opinion. Such a change does not create jurisdiction to initiate reassessment. On that basis, the reassessment notice and the initiating order were held unsustainable and were quashed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether reassessment proceedings could be initiated under section 21 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 on the basis of a subsequent judgment, when the original assessments had already been finalized and no concealment of fact was alleged.

Analysis: Reassessment under section 21 is permissible only where there is an escape of assessment. Where the proceedings are founded solely on a later judicial view concerning the correctness of an earlier concession or exemption, and the Revenue does not allege suppression or concealment, the initiation of reassessment is only a change of opinion. Such change of opinion does not confer jurisdiction to reopen a concluded assessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment notice and the order initiating proceedings were jurisdiction and could not be sustained. They were rightly quashed, in favour of the assessee.

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