  The discovery of the existence of an upper bound on the mass of a white dwarf
star is considered as one of the finest of twentieth century astrophysics. On
approaching this limiting mass of $1.4M_\odot$, known as the Chandrasekhar
mass-limit, a white dwarf is believed to spark of with an explosion called type
Ia supernova, which is considered to be a standard candle. But since the last
decade, observations of several over-luminous, peculiar type Ia supernovae
indicate that the Chandrasekhar-limit be significantly larger. By postulating
noncommutativity between the components of momentum variables, we show that the
mass of white dwarfs can be enhanced significantly and arrive at a new
super-Chandrasekhar mass limit of about $4.68M_\odot$. This can provide a
plausible explanation for the origin of over-luminous peculiar type Ia
supernovae.
