Appellate remand restores full assessment powers, while revisional remand may lawfully restrict reassessment to specified issues.

An appellate remand under the U.P. Sales Tax Act revives the original assessment proceedings and permits the assessing authority to proceed afresh with the same powers available under the assessment provision, including making further enquiry and considering material that comes to light, subject to any binding findings already recorded by the appellate authority. The remand itself does not cut down that statutory power unless the Act expressly allows such restriction. By contrast, a revisional remand may lawfully confine the reassessment to specified matters, and the assessing authority must remain within the revisional directions. The fresh assessment on appellate remand is not barred by the limitation provision referred to in the text.

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Issues: (i) Whether, after an assessment is set aside by the appellate authority and the matter is remanded under section 9(3) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the assessing authority can proceed afresh with the same powers as in the original assessment and consider fresh material; (ii) Whether, where a remand is made by the revisional authority under section 10 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the assessing authority's power on remand remains equally unrestricted or stands confined by the revisional directions.

Issue (i): Whether, after an assessment is set aside by the appellate authority and the matter is remanded under section 9(3) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the assessing authority can proceed afresh with the same powers as in the original assessment and consider fresh material.

Analysis: Section 9(3)(b) empowers the appellate authority to set aside the assessment and direct a fresh assessment after further enquiry, but it does not authorise the appellate authority to curtail the statutory power of the assessing authority when the assessment is revived on remand. Once the assessment is set aside, the original assessment proceedings stand revived and are to be completed afresh under section 7. In those proceedings, the assessing authority may make such enquiry as it considers necessary and may take note of material that comes to its knowledge before making the fresh order, subject to any binding findings already recorded by the appellate authority on the existing record. The limitation provision in section 21(2) does not bar such reassessment because the fresh assessment is made in consequence of the remand order under section 9.

Conclusion: The assessing authority has the same power as it originally had under section 7, subject only to the directions of the appellate authority as to enquiry and any binding findings already recorded.

Issue (ii): Whether, where a remand is made by the revisional authority under section 10 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the assessing authority's power on remand remains equally unrestricted or stands confined by the revisional directions.

Analysis: Section 10 confers wider revisional powers than section 9, including the power to pass such order as the revising authority thinks fit after examining legality, propriety, and regularity. In exercise of that jurisdiction, the revisional authority may direct that the assessment or fresh assessment be confined to specified matters, thereby restricting the scope of the reassessment proceedings. The assessing authority, in such a case, must act within the limits fixed by the revisional order and cannot travel beyond the specific directions given.

Conclusion: The assessing authority's jurisdiction on remand under section 10 can be circumscribed by the specific directions of the revisional authority.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by holding that an appellate remand under the Sales Tax Act revives the original assessment proceedings with full assessing powers, but a revisional remand may lawfully confine the reassessment to the matters specified in the revisional directions.

Ratio Decidendi: When an assessment is set aside and remanded by the appellate authority under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, the assessment proceedings revive in their original statutory form and the assessing authority may complete them with the full power conferred by the assessment provision, unless the statute expressly authorises the remanding authority to restrict that power; a revisional authority, where the statute so permits, may impose such restrictions by specific directions.

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