Saving clause preserves vested appellate rights under repealed sales tax law and keeps the old remedial chain intact.

A saving clause in section 52 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was read as preserving accrued remedial rights under the repealed sales tax law. The right of appeal, revision and reference was treated as a vested right arising when the lis commenced, and the court held that such rights are not retrospectively abrogated unless the legislature clearly so provides by express words or necessary implication. Section 52(3) kept pending second appeals, revisions, reviews and references under the old law, while section 52(2) did not destroy the integrated remedial scheme. The old appellate process therefore remained available.

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Issues: Whether the repeal and saving provisions in section 52 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1959 abrogated the assessee's vested right to pursue the remedial chain available under the repealed sales tax law, including second appeal, revision and reference to the High Court.

Analysis: The right of appeal and the connected remedial steps were treated as accrued rights arising when the lis commenced, not merely as matters of procedure. A statute is not to be construed as retrospectively impairing such rights unless that intention is expressed clearly or arises by necessary implication. Section 52(1) expressly saved rights already acquired or accrued under the repealed enactments. Section 52(3) reinforced that pending second appeals, revisions, reviews and references would continue to be governed by the repealed law and decided under it. Section 52(2), dealing only with pending first appeals and changing the forum, did not indicate an intention to destroy the substantive remedial rights. The appeal, revision and reference scheme under the repealed law formed one integrated legal remedy.

Conclusion: The vested right to pursue the old remedial process was not taken away, and the second appeals could not be declined on the footing that the new Act had displaced the earlier appellate remedy.

Final Conclusion: The challenge succeeded and the impugned orders refusing to entertain the second appeals were quashed, with a direction to receive and decide the appeals according to law.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory amendment will not retrospectively abrogate an accrued right of appeal or an integrated remedial scheme unless the legislature clearly so provides by express words or necessary implication, and a saving clause preserving accrued rights must be given full effect.

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