Tribunal remand limits: after rejecting penalty under the challenged provision, it cannot reopen proceedings under another clause.

An appellate or revisional tribunal cannot remand a matter for fresh notice under a different clause after it has already held that penalty is not leviable under the provision on which the proceedings were founded. Once the issue before it is conclusively answered, its power is confined to that controversy and does not extend to initiating a new line of enquiry outside the scope of the appeal. A remand made in such circumstances is without authority and liable to be set aside, with the assessee entitled to relief.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Sales Tax Tribunal could remand the matter for fresh notice under another clause after holding that penalty was not leviable under section 15-A(1)(h) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act.

Analysis: The Tribunal had conclusively found that penalty was not imposable under the clause under which proceedings had been initiated. Having answered that issue, it had no authority to travel beyond the controversy before it or to direct a remand merely to examine whether the conduct could fall under some other clause. The power of the Tribunal was confined to deciding the issue actually in appeal, and once it found the proposed penalty unsustainable, no further remand order could be justified on the same proceedings.

Conclusion: The remand order was without authority and was rightly set aside.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeded, the Tribunal's order was annulled, and the assessee obtained relief with costs.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate or revisional tribunal cannot, after negativing liability under the provision under challenge, remand the matter for initiation of proceedings under some other clause unless such course is within the issue actually before it and supported by law.

---