Final assessment cannot be reopened under issue-based reassessment when no proceedings are pending and orders have attained finality.

Section 34(8A) of the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was treated as a special issue-based reassessment power available only during pending proceedings and not as authority to reopen a concluded assessment. The Court noted that the earlier assessment orders for the relevant years had attained finality and were not under challenge within limitation, so no proceedings were pending. Because the notices sought to revisit the same turnover issues after final audit assessment, they amounted to an impermissible attempt to sit in appeal over concluded orders. The notices were therefore held without jurisdiction and were quashed.

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Issues: Whether notices issued under section 34(8A) of the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 could validly reopen assessment of turnover for assessment years 2011-12 and 2012-13 after the earlier assessment orders had attained finality and no proceedings were pending.

Analysis: Section 34(8A) is a special provision enabling issue-based assessment during the course of pending proceedings where tax evasion, incorrect disclosure, or wrong claim is noticed. Its non-obstante clause does not confer an unlimited power to revisit a concluded assessment or permit correction of an error in an already final audit assessment. The provision operates where the transaction or claim has not already been subjected to audit assessment under section 34(2) and where proceedings are actually pending. Once the petitioners' earlier assessments for the relevant years had been completed and were not challenged within limitation, those orders attained finality. In the absence of any pending proceedings, the authorities could not invoke section 34(8A) to issue fresh notices on the same issue, as that would amount to sitting in appeal over their own concluded orders.

Conclusion: The notices were without jurisdiction and were liable to be quashed. The petitioners succeeded.

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