Interim relief under sales tax appeal provisions must be decided first to prevent premature tax recovery.

Under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, the appellate authority must first decide an assessee's application for interim relief under the proviso to section 20(5) before taking up the appeal on merits. Section 20 must be read as a whole, and the proviso cannot be ignored, because delaying that application would make the statutory appeal ineffective and permit coercive recovery of assessed tax before the appeal is meaningfully heard. The tax recovery was therefore required to remain stayed until the relief application was determined.

---

---

Issues: Whether the appellate authority was bound to decide the assessee's application under the proviso to section 20(5) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act before taking up the appeal on merits, and whether recovery of the assessed tax should remain stayed until that application was decided.

Analysis: Section 20 of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act has to be read as a whole, and the proviso appended to it must be given a proper meaning. The appellate authority cannot prolong consideration of the appeal without first deciding the application by which the assessee seeks relief under the proviso to section 20(5). If that application is not decided first, the statutory remedy of appeal would be rendered illusory and the assessed tax may be recovered coercively before the appeal is effectively heard.

Conclusion: The application under the proviso to section 20(5) had to be decided before the appeal on merits was taken up, and the recovery of tax was directed to remain stayed until that decision.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute provides a proviso enabling interim relief to an assessee, the appellate authority must first decide that relief application before proceeding with the appeal on merits, so that the appeal does not become ineffective by premature recovery of tax.

---