Rectification cannot be used against a deemed self-assessment where no regular assessment order exists under the Act.

Section 27 creates a deemed self-assessment on filing of returns, with tax and input tax credit consequences arising by operation of law, and does not require a conscious assessment order. Rectification under section 31 is confined to mistakes apparent from an existing assessment or reassessment order. Where no regular assessment order had been passed under sections 28 or 29, a rectification exercise under section 31 lacked jurisdictional and could not be sustained; the revision therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether rectification under section 31 could be invoked in respect of a deemed self-assessment under section 27, when no regular assessment order had been passed under sections 28 or 29.

Analysis: Section 27 creates a statutory deeming fiction on the filing of returns, by which admitted tax liability and input tax credit consequences arise by operation of law; it does not contemplate the making of a conscious assessment order by the assessing authority. Rectification under section 31, by contrast, is available only in relation to a mistake apparent from the face of an existing order passed under the Act. As no assessment or reassessment order had been passed under sections 28 or 29, the alleged rubber-stamp entry could not furnish the jurisdictional basis for rectification. The attempted exercise under section 31 therefore exceeded the statutory field and could not be sustained.

Conclusion: Rectification under section 31 was not maintainable, and the revisions fail.

Ratio Decidendi: A rectification power confined to mistakes in an existing assessment or reassessment order cannot be exercised where the statute creates only a deemed self-assessment and no regular order has been passed.

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