Doctrine of merger limits rectification powers: a lower appellate authority cannot amend an order after Tribunal affirmation.

An order merged in a higher appellate order cannot later be rectified by the lower authority under a power limited to mistakes in its own order. Section 22 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act permitted rectification only by the authority whose order subsisted; once the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial)'s order was affirmed by the Tribunal, no independent order remained for rectification by that officer. The proper course for an aggrieved revenue party was to challenge the Tribunal's order, not seek rectification before the lower appellate authority. The rectification order was therefore held unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether, after the appellate order of the Tribunal had affirmed the order of the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial), the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial) retained jurisdiction under section 22 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act to rectify his earlier order.

Analysis: Section 22 empowered the assessing, appellate or revising authority or the Tribunal to rectify a mistake apparent on the record in its own order within the prescribed period. Once the order of the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial) had been carried in appeal and confirmed by the Tribunal, the earlier order stood merged in the order of the Tribunal. In that situation, there was no subsisting order of the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial) capable of rectification by him. If the Revenue was aggrieved by the omission of surcharge, the matter ought to have been pursued before the Tribunal or in revision against the Tribunal's order, not by invoking rectification before the lower appellate authority.

Conclusion: The Assistant Commissioner (Judicial) had no jurisdiction to rectify the merged order, and the rectification order was unsustainable. The challenge by the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: An order which has merged in a higher appellate order cannot thereafter be rectified by the inferior authority under a rectification power confined to that authority's own order.

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