Limitation for tax recovery proceedings starts when the assessing authority moves the Collector, not when actual recovery is completed.

For limitation under section 32(2) of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, recovery proceedings begin when the assessing authority sets the recovery machinery in motion by making the requisite motion or order to the Collector for recovery as arrears of land revenue. Because the statutory scheme was treated as in pari materia with the earlier income-tax recovery provisions, that construction was applied here as well. On that basis, recovery for the earlier assessment years was within time, while recovery for one year remained barred by limitation.

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Issues: Whether, for the purposes of limitation under section 32(2) of the U.P. Agricultural Income-tax Act, III of 1949, recovery proceedings commence when the assessing authority makes a motion to the Collector for recovery of the assessed tax and penalty as arrears of land revenue, and whether the recovery for the relevant assessment years was time-barred.

Analysis: Section 32(1) enables the Collector to recover the assessed tax or penalty on the motion of the assessing authority, while section 32(2) bars commencement of recovery proceedings after one year from the date on which the last instalment under section 30 falls due. The statutory scheme was held to be materially similar to section 46(2) and section 46(7) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, under which recovery proceedings were treated as commencing when the certificate or requisition was forwarded to the Collector. Applying that principle, the making of orders by the assessing authority directing recovery through the Collector was treated as the point at which proceedings commenced. On the evidence, recovery for the earlier years was found to have commenced within time, and the finding that recovery for one year was barred was not shown to be erroneous.

Conclusion: Recovery proceedings commenced when the assessing authority made the motion for recovery, the proceedings for the relevant earlier years were within limitation, and the bar of limitation applied only to the year found time-barred.

Ratio Decidendi: For limitation provisions governing recovery of assessed tax as arrears of land revenue, proceedings commence when the competent assessing authority sets the recovery machinery in motion by forwarding the requisite request or order to the Collector; where the relevant statutory provisions are in pari materia with earlier recovery provisions, the same construction applies.

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