Assessment limitation applies to amended section 23A orders imposing additional super-tax on undistributed income.

An amended charging provision that authorises additional super-tax on undistributed income and requires computation of liability is treated as an assessment provision, not a mere machinery clause. On that basis, an order under amended section 23A of the Income-tax Act, 1922 is an order of assessment governed by the general four-year limitation in section 34(3), unless expressly excluded. The court therefore held that no such order could be made after four years from the end of the assessment year, and the notice and proceedings were quashed.

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Issues: Whether an order under section 23A of the Income-tax Act, 1922, as amended by the Finance Act, 1955, is an order of assessment governed by the four-year limitation in section 34(3).

Analysis: Section 34(3) applies generally to orders of assessment and reassessment, subject to specified exceptions. The unamended section 23A had been treated as a machinery or computation provision, but the amended section, by its language and effect, authorises the company to be assessed to additional super-tax on undistributed income. The use of the expression "super-tax", the marginal note, the structure of the provision, the rate-based computation of liability, and the object of the amendment all show that the provision is fiscal and not penal. Once the section is treated as imposing tax and requiring determination of liability, an order under it is an order of assessment.

Conclusion: An order under amended section 23A is an order of assessment and is subject to the limitation prescribed by section 34(3); therefore, no order could be made after four years from the end of the assessment year. The petition succeeds and the notice and proceedings are quashed, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an amended charging provision imposes additional super-tax on undistributed income and requires computation and determination of liability, it is an assessment provision governed by the general period of limitation for assessment orders unless expressly excluded.

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