Doctrine of merger bars revision where a composite assessment order merges into the Tribunal's second appellate decision.

Under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, a composite assessment order carried in second appeal before the Tribunal merged ly in the Tribunal's appellate decision, including issues not separately argued or expressly discussed. Because the Tribunal was a superior appellate authority with power to enhance the assessment, the Commissioner could not invoke revisional jurisdiction over the freight charge issue after the Tribunal's second appellate order. The doctrine of merger applied to the whole order brought in appeal, so the omitted treatment of that issue in argument did not leave a separate revisional field for the Commissioner. The revision was therefore impermissible and the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

---

---

Issues: Whether the Commissioner could exercise revisional jurisdiction under the sales tax law in respect of the freight charge issue, when that issue had been decided in the first appeal but was not independently dealt with in the second appeal before the Tribunal.

Analysis: The appellate scheme under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 showed that the Tribunal, in second appeal, had power to enhance the assessment and was a superior authority to the Commissioner. The assessment was treated as a composite and indivisible whole, and the doctrine of merger was applied to the entire appellate order, not merely to the specific points expressly argued or separately discussed. The fact that the department had not raised the freight issue before the Tribunal did not preserve a separate revisional field for the Commissioner, because the Tribunal's second appellate order operated on the whole order brought before it.

Conclusion: The Commissioner had no jurisdiction to revise the first appellate order on the freight charge issue after the second appellate order of the Tribunal, and the question was answered against the Revenue and in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a composite assessment order is carried in second appeal before the Tribunal, the entire order merges in the Tribunal's appellate decision, and the Commissioner cannot exercise revisional jurisdiction over an issue covered by that order merely because it was not separately urged or expressly decided in argument before the Tribunal.

---