Rectification order appealability under sales tax law depends on the statutory list of appealable orders, not merger doctrine.

A rectification order under section 55 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, which merely deleted turnover for which Form F had been produced and granted the relief sought, was not appealable because appealability must arise from the statutory list of appealable orders. The order did not create a surviving grievance, and the remaining turnover was left untouched. Section 31 and section 31A did not treat such a rectification order as appealable, and the doctrine of merger could not convert it into one in the absence of reopening under the escaped-turnover provision. The appeal was therefore not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether an order passed by the assessing authority rectifying an assessment under section 55 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, granting the assessee the very relief sought, was an appealable order.

Analysis: The rectification order only deleted the turnover for which form F had been produced and for which full relief was claimed and granted. No grievance survived in relation to that relief, and the remaining turnover was untouched. Section 55 permitted rectification of an error apparent on the face of the record and, by sub-section (4), appeal and revision applied only in the manner contemplated by the Act. Since section 31 and section 31A specified the categories of appealable orders and a rectification order under section 55 was not one of them, the order could not be treated as appealable merely because it altered the earlier assessment. The doctrine of merger did not assist the assessee because there had been no reopening of assessment under the provision relating to escaped turnover.

Conclusion: The rectification order was not appealable, and the appeal was not maintainable. The challenge failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A rectification order that merely grants the relief sought under section 55 and is not among the orders enumerated as appealable does not become appealable solely on the basis of merger; appealability must be found within the statutory appeal provision itself.

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