Reassessment as fresh assessment permits a partition claim to be raised for the first time, with merits inquiry required.

Reassessment proceedings are treated as a fresh assessment, allowing an assessee to raise legitimate objections that were not advanced at the original stage. A claim of partition may therefore be raised for the first time in reassessment, and the assessing authority must examine that claim on merits after giving an opportunity of hearing. The doctrine of estoppel does not bar the assessee from asserting partition in the reopened proceedings. The operative effect is that objections omitted in the original assessment are not automatically forfeited when the assessment is reopened.

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Issues: Whether an assessee can raise a claim of partition for the first time in reassessment proceedings and whether the assessing authority is bound to enquire into that claim.

Analysis: Reassessment was treated as a fresh assessment that reopens the original assessment proceedings and enables the assessee to raise all legitimate contentions that could have been raised at the original stage. The absence of a prior partition claim in the original assessment did not bar consideration of the issue in reassessment. The doctrine of estoppel was held inapplicable to prevent the assessee from asserting partition in the reopened proceedings, and the assessing authority was required to consider the claim on merits after giving an opportunity of hearing.

Conclusion: The claim of partition could be raised in reassessment proceedings, and the assessing authority was bound to enquire into it; the objection based on estoppel failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment proceedings, being in the nature of a fresh assessment, permit the assessee to raise all legitimate objections available against the assessment, and such claims cannot be rejected merely because they were not advanced in the original assessment.

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