TMI Blog1971 (8) TMI 197X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... losed down his business, and for the assessment year 1963-64, he was assessed to sales tax. Consequent upon the said assessment, the notice of demand was served on the widow calling upon her to pay a sum of Rs. 306.38 as the balance due under the said assessment order. It appears that the petitioner was aggrieved by the notice of demand as well as the original order of assessment, and an appeal questioning the propriety of the original order was filed on 31st December, 1964, which was received by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner on 4th January, 1965. When the appeal was pending with the appellate authority, the assessing authority, acting under section 55 of the Act, issued a notice proposing to rectify the original assessment order and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ision petition was dismissed on the ground of inordinate delay. The petitioner has not challenged further the correctness of the order of the revisional authority. The result is that the order of rectification made by the assessing authority on 23rd February, 1965, has become final and effective in the eye of law. Whilst the above proceedings were concurrently being taken by the assessee at one time mistakenly before the appellate authority and at another time, beyond time, before the revisional authority, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, who was in seizing of the appeal as against the original order of assessment dated 30th November, 1964, did not divest himself of such seizing of the papers in appeal, but continued to deal with it, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... me, the petitioner has come up to this court for the issue of a writ of prohibition restraining the revenue from collecting the tax as provided in the impugned notice of demand. Mr. Sethu, learned counsel for the petitioner, urges that the original order of assessment having become merged with the appellate order dated 13th October, 1965, the notice of demand purporting to be in furtherance of the order of rectification made by the original authority during the pendency of the appeal, is unsustainable and in this view the revenue should be interdicted by a writ of prohibition. The revenue, on the other hand, would state that this is not a case where the rectification proceedings were undertaken by the original authority after the first as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f our court, reported in Haji Abdul Shukoor and Company v. State of Madras[1965] 16 S.T.C. 808. , Gopalaswami Iyer and Others v. Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Madras[1965] 16 S.T.C. 854. and Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes v. Ramiah Chetty and Company[1968] 22 S.T.C. 217. In all these cases, the principle is well laid down that if the original order of assessment gets merged in the order passed in appeal, then the assessing authority, whoever it may be, has no jurisdiction to interfere with the operation of the order as affirmed on appeal. Though technically, in this case, the appeal as against the original order was finally dismissed, yet that circumstance by itself cannot prevent an original authority to undertake a rectification ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... thorities, so long as its order is still enforceable and has not yet been set aside by any appellate or revisional authority. In the instant case, on the date when the order under section 55 was made, there was no order of the appellate authority. The question, therefore, of any merger of the assessment order with the order of the appellate authority does not arise. Factually also, the appellate authority, who had seizin of the appeal papers, was informed by the assessing authority of such a rectification of the original order as above, and this information was apparently overlooked by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Normally, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner ought to have dealt with the regular appeal as against the first assessm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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