Assessment limitation cannot be implied where the taxing statute omits the express time-bar provision and only regulates notice.

Under the Super Profits Tax Act, 1963, no limitation period was prescribed for completing the assessment for the relevant year. Sections 6 and 9 governed return filing and reassessment of escaped profits, but section 9(b) only restricted the timing of notice in escaped-assessment cases and did not impose a time bar on the assessment order itself. Although section 19 incorporated selected Income-tax Act, 1961 provisions, section 153, which expressly fixes assessment limitation, was not adopted. In the absence of an express statutory limit, no limitation could be implied from section 9(b), and the assessment order was held not to be time-barred.

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Issues: Whether, under the Super Profits Tax Act, 1963, the assessment order for assessment year 1963-64 was barred by limitation on the ground that it was made more than four years after the end of the assessment year.

Analysis: Sections 6 and 9 of the Act deal with the filing of returns and reassessment of escaped profits, but neither provision prescribes a time limit for completion of the assessment itself. Section 9(b) only limits the issue of notice in the specified escaped-assessment situation; it does not create a limitation for making the assessment order. The Act also incorporates certain provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 through section 19, but section 153 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which expressly prescribes assessment limitation, is not among the sections adopted by the Act. In the absence of an express provision, no limitation can be implied merely from section 9(b).

Conclusion: The assessment order was not barred by limitation and the answer was against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute expressly adopts specified provisions of another enactment but omits the provision prescribing limitation for completion of assessment, no time limit for completing the assessment can be implied.

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