Statutory appellate remedy prevails over writ jurisdiction in sales tax assessment disputes, with recovery stayed pending appeal.

Where sales tax assessment orders are appealable under the statute and the assessee has already invoked that appellate remedy, the High Court will ordinarily decline to entertain writ petitions against the assessments. The writ jurisdiction is not to be used as an alternative to the special statutory process, especially where no challenge to the validity of the taxing provisions or breach of natural justice is shown. The appellate authority was directed to decide the pending appeals on merits within a fixed time, and recovery was restrained until disposal of the appeals.

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Issues: Whether the writ petitions challenging sales tax assessments were maintainable when an effective statutory appellate remedy was available and had in fact been availed of.

Analysis: The assessment orders impugned in the writ petitions were appealable under the Rajasthan sales tax scheme. The petitioners initially invoked the writ jurisdiction and obtained interim relief, but after vacation of stay they also filed appeals, which were pending before the appellate authority. In such a situation, the statutory remedy provided by the Act was the proper course. The Court relied on the settled principle that where a statute creates a liability and provides a special remedy for enforcing it, that remedy must ordinarily be pursued, and the extraordinary writ jurisdiction should not be used as an alternative to the statutory appellate process. No challenge to the validity of the taxing provisions or any violation of natural justice was pressed as a basis for bypassing the remedy.

Conclusion: The writ petitions were not maintainable and were dismissed on the preliminary objection, with the appellate authority directed to decide the pending appeals on merits within a fixed time and without enforcing recovery till disposal of the appeals.

Ratio Decidendi: When an assessee has an effective statutory appellate remedy against a tax assessment and that remedy has been invoked, the High Court will ordinarily decline to exercise writ jurisdiction to decide the assessment dispute on merits.

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