Refund barred during reassessment when a section 12(8) notice is issued under the Orissa Sales Tax Act.

Under the second proviso to section 14 of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947, a refund claim is barred where reassessment proceedings are pending, because the provision uses clear and unambiguous language requiring literal construction. A notice issued under section 12(8) was treated as sufficient to constitute an order for reassessment for this purpose, since the proviso extends until reassessment is finalised. Section 14-D was read as operating in a separate field, empowering the Commissioner to withhold refund where the refund order is under appeal or other proceedings, so no inconsistency arose between the two provisions. Refund therefore cannot be granted until the reassessment proceeding ends.

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Issues: Whether, under the second proviso to section 14 of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947, a notice issued for reassessment under section 12(8) bars allowance of a refund claim until the reassessment is finalised.

Analysis: The second proviso to section 14 provides that no claim for refund of tax, penalty or interest paid under the Act shall be allowed where there is an order for reassessment until the reassessment is finalised. The language was held to be plain and unambiguous and therefore to attract the ordinary rule of literal construction. The provision was read as creating a statutory bar to refund during the pendency of reassessment proceedings. Section 14-D was held to operate in a different field, as an enabling power in the Commissioner to withhold refund where the refund order is the subject of appeal or other proceeding, and therefore there was no inconsistency between the two provisions. A notice under section 12(8) was treated as an order for reassessment within the meaning of the proviso, since the expression used was broader than a completed reassessment order and the statute itself refers to finalisation of reassessment.

Conclusion: A notice under section 12(8) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 is covered by the second proviso to section 14, and refund cannot be granted until the reassessment proceeding is finalised.

Ratio Decidendi: Where statutory language governing refund during reassessment is clear, the court must apply its plain meaning, and a reassessment initiation notice is sufficient to attract a proviso barring refund until finalisation of the reassessment.

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