Reopened assessment time limit under a Board circular is directory, not a statutory bar, where delay is otherwise explained.

A Board circular prescribing a normal two-year period for completing reopened assessments is directory, not a statutory bar. Where the reassessment remained pending because of continued enquiries, repeated hearings, summons and adjournments sought by the assessee, delay beyond that period did not by itself invalidate the assessment. The record showed the delay was not attributable solely to departmental inaction, and the assessee's own conduct and unavailability of books explained the pendency. The plea of limitation therefore failed, and the reassessment was treated as within jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment was barred by limitation on the basis of the Board's circular and whether the delay in completion of the reopened assessment rendered the assessment invalid.

Analysis: The reopened assessment had remained pending for several years, but the record showed continuous enquiry, repeated hearings, issuance of summons, and repeated requests for adjournment by the assessee, whose firm had been dissolved and whose books were not readily available. The Board's circular prescribing completion of reopened assessments within two years was treated as an administrative direction meant to prevent undue delay. It was not treated as a statutory time bar whose breach would, by itself, make the assessment illegal. The facts were distinguished from cases where long delay was held unreasonable or lacking bona fides, and the delay here was not attributable solely to departmental negligence.

Conclusion: The plea that the reassessment was time barred failed, and the assessment was held to be within jurisdiction.

Ratio Decidendi: A Board circular fixing a normal time frame for completion of reopened assessments is only directory and does not, without more, invalidate an assessment completed after that period, particularly where the delay is explained by continuing proceedings and by the assessee's own conduct.

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