Deemed assessment starts limitation for revision, and a later proceeding cannot extend the statutory time limit.

Under the Tamil Nadu VAT Act, a deemed assessment under Section 22(2) was treated as taking effect on 31 October of the succeeding year, and that date was held to be the starting point for the six-year limitation period for revision under Section 27(1)(a). The Court held that a later proceeding under Section 22(4) did not extend or shift the limitation where the deeming provision had already operated. Because the notice was issued after six years from the deemed assessment date, the revised assessment was held time-barred and unsustainable, and the impugned revision was quashed.

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Issues: Whether the revised assessment under Section 27(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 was barred by limitation in view of the deemed assessment under Section 22(2) of the Act.

Analysis: The return for the relevant assessment year was filed and, by the statutory deeming fiction under Section 22(2), the dealer stood assessed on 31 October of the succeeding year. The Court held that this deemed assessment date is the relevant starting point for computing the six-year limitation under Section 27(1)(a). A later proceeding under Section 22(4) could not extend or shift that limitation in the facts of the case, because the deeming provision had already taken effect. The notice issued in February 2021 was therefore beyond six years from 31 October 2013. The Supreme Court decisions relied upon by the revenue were held inapplicable because they did not arise in the context of the same deemed assessment mechanism.

Conclusion: The revised assessment was held to be time-barred and unsustainable, and the writ petition was allowed.

Final Conclusion: The impugned revised assessment was quashed on the ground that the statutory period for initiating proceedings under Section 27(1)(a) had expired before the show-cause notice was issued.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute creates a deemed assessment on a fixed date, limitation for reopening or revising that assessment runs from that deemed assessment date and cannot be extended by subsequent proceedings that do not alter the statutory starting point.

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