Doctrine of merger bars appeal against an adjudication order once it has been replaced by an appellate order.

Once an adjudication order is carried in appeal and replaced by an appellate order, the original order ceases to exist independently. On that basis, the doctrine of merger bars any later review or appeal against the merged adjudication order, because there is no subsisting order capable of challenge. The note states that a department's appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) would therefore not be maintainable after the earlier appellate order had already set aside the demand, and the impugned confirmation of duty and penalty could not stand.

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Issues: Whether the department's appeal against the adjudication order was maintainable after the original order had merged in the earlier appellate order.

Analysis: The original adjudication order had already been carried in appeal and replaced by the Commissioner (Appeals)' earlier order setting aside the demand. Once that appellate order was passed, the adjudication order ceased to exist independently. On the date the department sought review and filed its appeal, there was no subsisting order of adjudication capable of being appealed against. The doctrine of merger therefore operated to bar the department's appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals).

Conclusion: The department's appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) was not maintainable, and the impugned order confirming duty and penalty could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Once an order of adjudication merges in an appellate order, it cannot thereafter be reviewed or appealed against as an subsisting order.

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