Provisional assessment merges into final assessment, allowing dismissal of a separate appeal as infructuous when final assessment is already challenged.

A provisional assessment under the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 loses independent enforceability once a final assessment order is passed, because it merges into the final assessment. Where an appeal against the final assessment is already pending, the Tribunal need not examine the merits of a separate appeal against the provisional order and may dismiss it as infructuous. The statutory wording empowering the Tribunal to pass such order as it deems fit was treated as broad enough to support that course. The Tribunal therefore had power to dismiss the appeal as infructuous, and the challenge to that action failed.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal had power under section 21(4) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 to dismiss an appeal as infructuous after a final assessment order had been passed.

Analysis: Once the final assessment order was passed, the provisional assessment order ceased to be independently enforceable because it merged into the final assessment. Since an appeal against the final assessment was already pending, the Tribunal was justified in declining to examine the merits of the appeal against the provisional order and in dismissing it as infructuous. The phrase empowering the Tribunal to pass such order as it deemed fit was held to be wide enough to cover such a course.

Conclusion: The Tribunal had the power to dismiss the appeal as infructuous, and the challenge to that course of action failed.

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