Finality of exemption orders limits successor authority from cancelling sales tax exemption without express review power.

An authority acting under a sales tax exemption scheme cannot reopen and cancel a completed exemption order on the same material unless the notification framework expressly confers review power; the cancellation was therefore without jurisdiction. The Court also treated the powdering of chillies, coriander and turmeric as an issue governed by the wording of the relevant notifications and the findings already made by the competent authorities, and held that the exemption could not be denied by a successor officer on that basis. The earlier exemption remained effective, and the cancellation order was quashed.

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Issues: (i) Whether the successor Deputy Commissioner had jurisdiction to cancel an exemption order already granted under the sales tax exemption notifications; (ii) whether the conversion of chillies, coriander and turmeric into their respective powders amounted to manufacture for the purpose of exemption under the relevant notifications.

Issue (i): Whether the successor Deputy Commissioner had jurisdiction to cancel an exemption order already granted under the sales tax exemption notifications.

Analysis: The exemption scheme under section 10 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 and the successive notifications contemplated a structured process for determining eligibility and granting exemption. The General Manager, District Industries Centre, had issued the eligibility certificate and the Deputy Commissioner had, after considering objections, granted exemption. The record did not disclose any express power of review enabling a successor officer to reopen and cancel a completed exemption order on the same material. The Court also noted that repeated reopening of such orders on the basis of later decisions would destroy finality and prejudice the assessee, especially where the exemption was operative for a fixed period and the assessee had acted on the earlier orders.

Conclusion: The successor Deputy Commissioner had no authority to cancel the earlier exemption order in the manner adopted, and the cancellation order was without jurisdiction.

Issue (ii): Whether the conversion of chillies, coriander and turmeric into their respective powders amounted to manufacture for the purpose of exemption under the relevant notifications.

Analysis: The notifications in force had to be read with their own terms, including the distinction between goods "produced" and goods "manufactured" across different periods. The Court observed that the question whether powdering resulted in a commercially different commodity depended on the governing notification and the factual and legal material already considered by the competent authorities. The earlier grant of exemption had been made after examining the applicable notifications and the then existing legal position, and the issue could not be reopened by a successor authority simply by relying on a subsequent view without following the proper course under the notification scheme.

Conclusion: The assessee's claim to exemption could not be denied on the basis adopted in the cancellation order.

Final Conclusion: The cancellation of the exemption order was quashed, and the petitioner retained the benefit of the exemption previously granted.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express power of review, an authority acting under a sales tax exemption notification cannot reopen and cancel a completed exemption order on the same grounds already considered by its predecessor, particularly where the assessee has acted on the grant and the notification scheme provides no such revisional power.

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