Statutory appellate remedy bars writ challenge to sales tax assessment, with liberty to pursue the prescribed appeal.

A fiscal assessment challenge under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act was held to be unsuitable for writ review because the statute provided a complete and efficacious appellate mechanism. The court noted that the assessee had an adequate remedy by appeal, including a further statutory appeal, and that rejection of rectification did not justify bypassing that process. Writ jurisdiction under article 226 was therefore not to be used as a substitute for the prescribed appellate route. Liberty was nevertheless granted to file an appeal before the appellate authority within the time allowed, with the dispute directed back to the statutory forum.

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Issues: Whether the writ petitions challenging the assessment order and the rejection of rectification were maintainable in view of the statutory appellate remedy under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: The assessment order was appealable under the Act, which provided a complete machinery for challenging assessments. An assessee had an equally efficacious remedy by way of appeal under section 31 and a further appeal under section 36, and the rectification application under section 55 having been rejected, the proper course was to pursue the statutory appellate remedy. In such circumstances, recourse to writ jurisdiction under article 226 was not warranted when the statute itself furnished an adequate remedy against arbitrary or unjust assessment.

Conclusion: The writ petitions were not maintainable as a substitute for the statutory appeal, but the petitioner was given liberty to file an appeal before the appellate authority within the time granted.

Final Conclusion: The dispute was directed to the appellate forum under the Act, with limited relief permitting the petitioner to invoke the prescribed appeal remedy despite the delay caused by the earlier proceedings.

Ratio Decidendi: When a fiscal statute provides a complete and efficacious appellate mechanism against an assessment order, writ jurisdiction will ordinarily not be invoked to bypass the statutory remedy.

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