Revisional power cannot bypass the five-year limit for escaped assessment or reopen concluded sales tax assessments.

Revisional notices could not be used to reopen concluded assessments after the five-year limitation for escaped assessment had expired. Section 16 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 permits reassessment only of escaped turnover or turnover assessed at a lower rate within five years from the end of the relevant year, while Section 32 revisional power remains subject to the Act and cannot be exercised indirectly to bypass that limit. Because the notices relied on the same material already on record and lacked a fresh jurisdictional basis, they were held to be without jurisdiction and unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether notices issued under the revisional power could reopen concluded assessments beyond the five-year limitation applicable to escaped assessment.

Analysis: Section 16 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 permits reassessment of escaped turnover within five years from the expiry of the relevant year, and that power is confined to bringing to tax turnover that had escaped assessment or had been assessed at a lower rate. Section 32 confers a suo motu revisional power on the Deputy Commissioner, but that power is expressly subject to the Act and cannot be used to do indirectly what the assessing authority itself could not do after the expiry of the statutory period. The impugned notices were found to be based on the same material already available and to amount to reopening concluded assessments without fresh jurisdictional basis, and they were issued after the limitation period had run out.

Conclusion: The notices were without jurisdiction and unsustainable.

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