M/s Kishan Lal Vs Additional Commissioner Of Commercial Tax (Chhattisgarh High Court)
In the proviso (a) to sub-section (3) of Section 49 of the VAT Act an embargo has been created for the purpose that no proceeding initiating suo motu revision under Section 49 (3) shall be initiated after the expiry of three calendar years from the date of the order sought to be revised.
Since the orders sought to be revised, as stated in the show cause notices, were passed on 1-5-2009, 1-5-2010 and 22-1-2008, they were clearly beyond the prescribed time period of three years. When once the period of limitation expires, the mandate against being subject to suo motu revision sets in and the right to embark upon and invoke Section 49 (3) get extinguished.
Even otherwise, the limitation has to be calculated from the date of assessment and not from the date of reassessment order, as the subject matter of show cause notices dated 14-7-2015 invoking suo motu revisional power under the VAT Act read with Section 13 of the Entry Tax Act (in the VAT case and Entry Tax case of the assessee, the year is different), refers to the original order of assessment.
As a consequence of above discussion, we have no hesitation to hold that the show cause notices dated 14-7-2015 for the provincial tax and entry tax for suo motu revision of original assessment order(s) passed on 1-5-2009, 1-5-2010 and 22-1-2008 were barred by limitation, as the same were issued after three calendar years, therefore, the show cause notices deserve to be and are hereby quashed. As a consequence of quashing of show cause notices for provincial tax and entry tax for the assessment year 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, the final revisional order passed under Section 49 (3) of the VAT Act would be resulantly illegal. Thus, the final orders are also quashed.
