Vested right of revision survives later amendment where the assessment was made under the unamended tax provision.

A vested statutory right of revision existing on the date of assessment is governed by the law then in force, not by a later amendment, unless the amendment is expressly or by necessary implication retrospective. The text explains that where section 20(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 originally conferred revisionary rights on both sides, that right attached to the proceedings when the assessment order was made. The later amendment restricting revisional power to matters prejudicial to the Revenue did not retrospectively extinguish the assessee's pre-existing right, so the revision could not be rejected as not maintainable under the amended provision.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's right of revision had to be governed by the unamended section 20(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957, or by the amendment introduced with effect from 1 July 1985, and whether the revision could be dismissed as not maintainable under the amended provision.

Analysis: The assessment order had been passed when section 20(1) conferred a revisionary right on both sides. That right was treated as a vested statutory right attaching to the proceedings on the date of assessment. The later amendment restricted the Deputy Commissioner's revisional power to matters prejudicial to the Revenue, but the amendment was not retrospective and did not expressly take away the pre-existing right. In taxation matters, the governing law for such vested appellate or revisional rights is the law in force when the assessment order was made.

Conclusion: The unamended section 20(1) applied, and the assessee's revisionary right was not defeated by the later amendment.

Final Conclusion: The order directing disposal of the revision in accordance with law was upheld, and the challenge to that view failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory right of appeal or revision existing on the date of the assessment is a vested right and is not taken away by a subsequent amendment unless the amendment is expressly or by necessary implication made retrospective.

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