Remand for fresh assessment cannot reopen a concluded absence of evidence linking transactions to the assessee.

A remand for fresh assessment is impermissible where the appellate authority has already affirmed that there is no material linking the disputed transactions to the assessee. Once the available evidence failed to connect the seized papers with the assessee's business, the Board of Revenue could not reopen the matter merely to conduct a roving enquiry and search for fresh material against the assessee. The remand order was held illegal, and the reference was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the Board of Revenue was justified in remanding the matter for fresh assessment after affirming that there was no material to show that the disputed transactions belonged to the assessee.

Analysis: The Board accepted the findings of the assessing authority and the first appellate authority that there was no evidence to connect the papers seized from the former employee with the assessee's business. Once that finding stood affirmed, a further enquiry merely to search for material against the assessee was unwarranted. In such circumstances, remand could not be used to reopen an issue already concluded against the Revenue on the available evidence.

Conclusion: The remand order was illegal and the question referred was answered in the affirmative in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A remand for fresh assessment is impermissible where the appellate authority has already affirmed the absence of material linking the disputed transactions to the assessee and the remand would serve only to conduct a roving inquiry to find evidence against it.

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