Section 23A order is not an assessment order; limitation for assessment orders does not apply.

An order under section 23A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, as amended, was held not to be an assessment order. The provision was treated as a machinery provision because it authorised the Income-tax Officer to determine and impose liability for additional super-tax on undistributed profits, but did not itself create the tax charge. As a result, the limitation period applicable to assessment orders under section 34(3) did not govern orders made under section 23A.

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Issues: Whether an order made under section 23A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, as amended by the Finance Act, 1955, was an order of assessment governed by the limitation period in section 34(3).

Analysis: Section 23A, as amended, created a machinery for imposing liability on the company itself to pay additional super-tax on undistributed profits, but it did not become a charging section. The liability arose from the Income-tax Officer's order after the statutory conditions were examined. The Court distinguished between assessment, which crystallises a statutory charge created by the Act, and an order imposing liability under section 23A, which merely determines whether the company should be made liable. The surrounding provisions relating to appeals and recovery also showed that Parliament treated section 23A orders as distinct from assessment orders.

Conclusion: An order under section 23A, as amended, was not an order of assessment and was not subject to the limitation in section 34(3).

Ratio Decidendi: A provision that authorises the Income-tax Officer to determine and impose a tax liability on a company, without creating the charge itself, is a machinery provision and not an assessment order for the purpose of limitation.

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