Commissioner's section 35 declaration is not binding in assessment; finality is confined to that special proceeding.

Section 35 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act was treated as a special, administrative jurisdiction available only when the matter was not already pending before an assessing authority or court. Its "final" effect was confined to that proceeding alone, so a Commissioner's declaration that an activity was not taxable did not bind the Sales Tax Officer or other statutory authorities deciding assessment liability on their own evidence and legal conclusions. Section 9(7) reinforced the independence of the assessment and appellate process from executive interference. No estoppel arose absent a binding assurance against tax liability, so the assessee could not prevent assessment on the strength of the section 35 order.

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Issues: Whether a decision of the Commissioner of Sales Tax under section 35 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, declaring that the assessee's activity was not liable to tax, bound the assessing authority in the pending and future assessment proceedings, and whether the assessee could rely on that decision to prevent assessment.

Analysis: Section 35 was held to confer a special, miscellaneous jurisdiction exercisable only where the matter was not already pending before a court or assessing authority. The Commissioner's power under that provision was treated as administrative in character, unlike the judicial or quasi-judicial functions exercised by the assessing, appellate and revisional authorities under the Act. The expression "final" in sub-section (5) was construed as final only for proceedings under section 35 itself, preventing the same parties from reopening the same matter before the Commissioner, but not making the Commissioner's view binding on other statutory authorities deciding assessment liability on their own evidence and legal conclusions. Section 9(7) of the Act, which preserved the appellate authority's discretion from executive interference, reinforced this construction. The plea of estoppel was rejected because no binding assurance against tax liability had been shown.

Conclusion: The Commissioner's order under section 35 was not binding on the Sales Tax Officer in assessment proceedings, and the assessee was not entitled to restrain assessment on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: Finality attached to a Commissioner's decision under section 35 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act is confined to that special proceeding and does not displace the independent assessment jurisdiction of the statutory authorities.

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