Appellate power cannot enhance assessment without departmental appeal or cross-objections unless the statute expressly allows it.

An appellate authority, while hearing an assessee's appeal, cannot enhance assessment or penalty or withdraw relief already granted unless the governing statute expressly confers that power or the department has filed an appeal or cross-objections. Section 14B of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 allowed the tribunal to pass such order as it thought fit, but did not authorise a wholesale reversal of first appellate relief in the department's absence. The order remanding the matter in toto on the assessee's appeal alone was therefore unsustainable, and the relief granted below was restored, with remand limited only to the remaining transactions.

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Issues: Whether the Rajasthan Tax Board could, in an assessee's appeal and in the absence of any departmental appeal or cross-objections, set aside the relief granted by the first appellate authority and remand the entire matter for fresh assessment, thereby effectively enhancing the assessment and penalty.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that the appellate power under section 14B of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 permitted it to pass such order as it thought fit, but it did not confer a power to enhance the assessment or penalty or to reverse relief granted to the assessee in the absence of an appeal or cross-objections by the department. The normal appellate principle was applied that a party not appealing from an adverse finding is taken to have accepted it and cannot seek relief against the successful party in the other's appeal unless the statute expressly permits such a course. The relied-upon decisions showed that where the statute expressly confers power to enhance, such power may be exercised, but the Rajasthan Act contained no comparable provision in section 14B.

Conclusion: The Tribunal had no jurisdiction to set aside the first appellate relief and remand the case in toto on the assessee's appeal alone; the order was therefore unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The assessee succeeded, and the relief granted by the first appellate authority was restored while the remand was modified so that only the remaining transactions could be examined afresh.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of a departmental appeal or cross-objections, an appellate authority cannot enhance the assessment or disturb relief already granted to the assessee unless the governing statute expressly confers that power.

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