Satish Chandra, C.J.

1. THE interesting questions of law which arise for our consideration in this reference under the Indian I.T. Act are :

"(1) Whether the regular assessment under the Business Profits Tax Act is required to be made within four years of the end of the chargeable accounting period ? and

(2) If not, whether the making of such an assessment after 20 years was making it within a reasonable time ?"

2. THE Tribunal answered the first question in the affirmative and the second in the negative. Hence, this reference at the instance of the CIT.

In respect of various chargeable accounting periods ranging from 1st April, 1946, to 31st March, 1949, the ITO issued a notice under Section 11 of the Business Profits Tax Act, 1947, within a year, and so were provisional assessments made under Section 13 of the Act, the details whereof are as under. The regular assessments were, however, made nearly 20 years later on 30th December, 1969, for all these periods. The tax demand created by the provisional and the regular assessments is also indicated below.

Chargeable Date of Date of Amount of tax Date Amount

Accounting service of provisional of regular of t