Mandatory notice period for escaped assessment is jurisdictional; shorter time cannot be cured by waiver or later return.

Section 41 of the Maharashtra Agricultural Income-tax Act requires a notice complying with section 22(2), including at least 30 days to respond, before jurisdiction to make an escaped-assessment is validly assumed. A notice giving a shorter period fails the mandatory statutory condition and the resulting assessment is without jurisdiction. A return filed after such a notice does not automatically convert the matter into a regular assessment under section 23, especially where the order expressly proceeds under section 41 and the later filing is treated as responsive to the penalty proceedings. The jurisdictional defect cannot be cured by waiver or acquiescence.

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Issues: Whether an assessment under section 41 of the Maharashtra Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1962 was valid when the notice did not grant the assessee at least 30 days to comply, and whether the filing of a return after such notice converted the proceeding into a regular assessment under section 23 or cured the defect.

Analysis: Section 41 incorporates the notice requirements of section 22(2), which include giving the assessee not less than 30 days to comply. The notice in question allowed a shorter period, so the statutory condition for assumption of jurisdiction was not satisfied. The later return was filed after the section 41 notice and was treated as having been filed to meet the penalty proceeding, not as a voluntary return that displaced the escaped-assessment notice. The order itself proceeded expressly under section 41 and not as a regular assessment under section 23. A defect going to jurisdiction could not be waived by acquiescence.

Conclusion: The assessment under section 41 was invalid and the answer to the third question was in the negative, in favour of the assessee and against the Department. The first two questions did not arise for determination.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a reassessment or escaped-assessment provision requires notice in the manner of a return notice under section 22(2), the minimum statutory period for compliance is mandatory, and failure to give that period renders the resulting assessment without jurisdiction and incapable of being cured by waiver or acquiescence.

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