Tribunal remand directions override earlier assessment compliance, making rectification maintainable and requiring a fresh assessment.

An assessment order passed in compliance with earlier remand directions under the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 became unsustainable when the Tribunal later modified that remand in a connected appeal and added further directions. The rectification application under section 22 was maintainable because the earlier assessment no longer reflected the Tribunal's later , and the order could be treated as non est. However, once the assessing authority is bound by the Tribunal's directions, the proper course was to require a fresh assessment in conformity with the later order. The revision was therefore allowed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the assessment order dated 28 August 1997 could be treated as non est after the Tribunal, while deciding the earlier appeal, upheld the remand order with additional directions and whether the authority was bound to direct a fresh assessment.

Analysis: The assessment order had been passed in compliance with the remand directions then prevailing under section 9 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948. When the Tribunal later decided the connected appeal under section 10 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 and modified the remand order by giving additional directions, the earlier basis of the assessment order ceased to survive. The rectification application under section 22 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 was therefore maintainable, and the assessment order could be annulled as it did not reflect the Tribunal's subsequent directions. Since the assessing authority is bound to act in accordance with the Tribunal's directions, the proper course was to require a fresh assessment in the light of the later order.

Conclusion: The assessment order was rightly treated as non est, but the appellate authority ought to have directed a fresh assessment in accordance with the Tribunal's later directions; the assessee succeeded in the revision.

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