Confirmed assessment overrides earlier remand, sustaining garnishee notice absent independent illegality.

A subsequent appellate order confirming an assessment, when left undisturbed in revision, prevails over an earlier remand order and bars the assessing authority from reopening the completed assessment. On that footing, the Tribunal noted that a subsisting demand remained against the assessee, so the garnishee notice issued under section 57 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 could not be invalidated merely by reference to the earlier remand. As no independent illegality or lack of jurisdiction was established in the garnishee proceeding, the challenge failed and the Tribunal declined interference.

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Issues: (i) Whether the subsequent appellate order confirming the assessment left any scope for the assessing authority to reopen the matter on the basis of the earlier remand order; and (ii) whether the garnishee notice issued under section 57 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 was illegal or jurisdiction.

Issue (i): Whether the subsequent appellate order confirming the assessment left any scope for the assessing authority to reopen the matter on the basis of the earlier remand order.

Analysis: The first appellate order had remanded the matter for fresh assessment on the undecided issues, while the later appellate order finally decided the taxability issue concerning rice bran oil and then confirmed the assessment order. The later order was not modified in revision insofar as it confirmed the assessment. The earlier remand order could not override the legal effect of the subsequent order confirming the assessment, and the assessing authority had no scope to reopen the completed assessment in the face of that final appellate determination.

Conclusion: The assessing authority was not required to proceed on the basis of the earlier remand order, and the assessment stood confirmed by the later appellate and revisional orders.

Issue (ii): Whether the garnishee notice issued under section 57 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 was illegal or without jurisdiction.

Analysis: Since the assessment order stood confirmed and the revisional order also remained undisturbed, there was a subsisting demand against the petitioner. In that situation, the challenge to the garnishee notice could not succeed merely by relying on the earlier remand order. No independent illegality in the initiation of the garnishee proceeding was established.

Conclusion: The garnishee notice was not bad in law or without jurisdiction.

Final Conclusion: The application failed on merits, and the Tribunal refused to interfere with the impugned garnishee proceeding.

Ratio Decidendi: A subsequent appellate order confirming an assessment, when left unmodified in revision, governs the field and prevents reopening of the assessment on the strength of an earlier remand order; a garnishee proceeding founded on such subsisting assessment cannot be quashed absent an independent legal infirmity.

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