As we have pointed out already, in the case of an assessee paying tax under Section 7, he might not have any taxable turnover at all. From this point of view, the concept of taxable turnover and the payment of tax at a particular percentage of the said taxable turnover is foreign to the scope of Section 7. All that Section 7 says is, once an assessee, having regard to the quantum of the total turnover, exercises the option to be assessed under Section 7, Section 3 (1) will not apply. But once the limit of turnover provided for in Section 7 is overstepped, automatically the case will go out of Section 7 with the result Section 3(1) will become immediately applicable and that will be the consequence of the non obstante clause occurring in Section 7. In the four cases before us, as we have pointed out already, the turnover originally assessed plus the suppressed turnover exceeded the maximum limit prescribed in Section 7. Consequently, the moment the turnover was re-determined and the re-determined turnover exceeded the maximum limit of the total turnover fixed in Section 7, the case would go out of Section 7 and would attract Section 3(1). Once Section 3(1) is attracted, there is no dispute that Section 16 will be automatically attracted. Therefore, we have no hesitation whatever in holding that Section 16 is clearly applicable to the facts of the present cases and, accordingly, the reopening and reassessments were done in accordance with law.
