Accrued right of revision survives later amendment where the assessment order was passed before the statutory restriction took effect.

An amendment to section 32 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, effective from 1 November 1982, could not be applied to take away a revision remedy that had already accrued under the unamended provision. Because the assessment order was passed on 20 May 1982, the assessee had a vested right to seek revision before the Deputy Commissioner under the law then in force. The later restriction limiting revision to orders prejudicial to revenue did not retrospectively extinguish that existing right. The pre-amendment assessment therefore remained open to revision, and the remedy was maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the amendment to section 32 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, which came into force on 1 November 1982, could be applied so as to defeat the assessee's right to seek revision against an assessment order passed before the amendment.

Analysis: The assessment order had been passed on 20 May 1982, when the unamended section 32 conferred a right of revision to the Deputy Commissioner. The later amendment introduced a restriction that revision could be initiated only if the order or proceeding was prejudicial to the interests of revenue. The right to challenge the order was therefore already available when the assessment was made, and the subsequent amendment could not take away that accrued right. The decision relied on the principle that a vested right of revision is governed by the law in force on the date of the original order.

Conclusion: The amended section 32 did not apply to deprive the assessee of the revision remedy in respect of the pre-amendment assessment order; the revision was maintainable.

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