Statutory finality bars collateral refund suits against completed tax assessments when prescribed remedies are not pursued.

A civil refund suit was held not maintainable where the taxing statute provided an appellate and revisional hierarchy and the assessment orders had attained finality. The court applied the statutory bar against collateral challenge to completed assessments, and held that a taxpayer who failed to pursue the prescribed remedies could not later invoke mistake of fact or law to reopen the assessment in a refund action. Limitation was also treated as having run from the date the plaintiff knew of the governing legal position, not from a later claimed date of discovery. With the principal refund claim failing, no independent basis remained for interest.

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Issues: (i) Whether the civil suit for refund of sales tax was maintainable in view of the statutory bar and the finality of the assessment proceedings; (ii) whether the plaintiff was estopped from challenging the assessment and entitled to refund despite not pursuing the statutory remedies; (iii) whether the suit was barred by limitation; and (iv) whether any interest was payable on the refund claim.

Issue (i): Whether the civil suit for refund of sales tax was maintainable in view of the statutory bar and the finality of the assessment proceedings.

Analysis: The statutory scheme vested the taxing authorities with jurisdiction to determine whether a transaction was taxable, including whether it fell within the constitutional bar applicable to sales in the course of import. The plaintiff had adequate remedies under the taxing enactment by way of appeal and revision, and the civil court could not be used to mount a collateral challenge to completed assessment orders. The bar on suits was treated as intended to prevent indirect impeachment of assessment orders that had attained finality.

Conclusion: The suit was not maintainable and the objection to civil court jurisdiction succeeded.

Issue (ii): Whether the plaintiff was estopped from challenging the assessment and entitled to refund despite not pursuing the statutory remedies.

Analysis: The court found that the disputed turnover had not been effectively agitated before the appellate authority, and the plaintiff could not, after allowing the assessment to become final, assert mistake of fact or mistake of law in a collateral refund suit. The principles governing refund for mistake did not assist the plaintiff where the statutory hierarchy had not been invoked on the very point in dispute.

Conclusion: The plaintiff was estopped from questioning the assessment and was not entitled to refund.

Issue (iii): Whether the suit was barred by limitation.

Analysis: The plaintiff's own correspondence showed awareness of the governing Supreme Court decision well before the date pleaded as discovery of mistake. On that basis, the plea that limitation commenced only from a later date of discovery was rejected, and the suit was treated as instituted beyond time.

Conclusion: The suit was barred by limitation.

Issue (iv): Whether any interest was payable on the refund claim.

Analysis: Once the principal refund claim failed on maintainability, jurisdiction, estoppel, and limitation, no independent basis remained for awarding interest.

Conclusion: No interest was payable.

Final Conclusion: The assessment could not be reopened through a civil refund suit after the statutory remedies were not pursued and the assessments had become final; the plaintiff's claims therefore failed in their entirety.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute gives finality to assessment orders and provides an adequate appellate hierarchy, a civil suit for refund cannot be used as a collateral attack on the assessment, and failure to invoke the statutory remedies bars the taxpayer from later asserting mistake or claiming refund.

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