Retrospective reopening of completed fiscal assessments is impermissible unless the new reassessment power is clearly made retrospective.

Section 59 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, which introduced a wider power to reopen escaped property assessments, could not be applied retrospectively to disturb an assessment finally completed before the amendment came into force. The court treated this reopening power as substantively different from the earlier rectification power under section 62 and held that, absent express language or necessary implication, the amendment did not authorise reassessment of a completed case. Pendency of an appeal on other issues did not remove the finality of the completed assessment for this purpose, so the reassessment was impermissible and its cancellation stood.

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Issues: Whether section 59 of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, as introduced by the amending law and brought into force on 1 July 1960, could be invoked to reopen an estate duty assessment that had been finally completed on 29 January 1960.

Analysis: The earlier law under section 62 permitted rectification of mistakes relating to valuation and omission of property within a limited framework, whereas section 59 introduced a distinct and wider power to reopen a completed assessment and reassess escaped property as if a fresh assessment were being made. The Court held that this new power was not merely a procedural variation of the old rectification power. In the absence of express language or necessary implication giving the amendment retrospective effect, the provision could not be applied so as to disturb an assessment that had already been completed before the amendment became operative. The pendency of an appeal on other aspects of the estate did not deprive the completed assessment of finality on the specific issue of reopening under section 59. The reassessment was therefore impermissible.

Conclusion: Section 59 could not validly be applied to reopen the assessment completed on 29 January 1960, and the cancellation of the reassessment was in favour of the accountable person.

Ratio Decidendi: A provision conferring a new power of reassessment will not operate retrospectively to reopen a completed fiscal assessment unless such retrospectivity is clearly expressed or necessarily implied; a completed assessment cannot be disturbed by a subsequently introduced reassessment power that is substantively different from the earlier rectification provision.

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