Section 57 bar under VAT law prevents reopening issues already decided in assessment proceedings.

Section 57 of the Uttarakhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 cannot be used to reopen a question that has already arisen and been decided in assessment proceedings. Where the assessing authority has considered the issue, including by applying the relevant tax rate, the statutory bar under section 57(1) applies because the matter is no longer an unexamined disputed question. The proper remedy is to challenge the assessment order or consequential orders under the Act, not to seek fresh determination under section 57. The earlier determination may be sufficient even if it is only inferential.

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Issues: Whether a disputed question could be raised under section 57 of the Uttarakhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005 when the same issue had already arisen and been determined in assessment proceedings.

Analysis: Section 57 permits determination of a disputed question only where no proceeding is pending before a court or before an assessing authority under sections 25, 26 or 29. The issue raised by the revisionist had already arisen in the course of assessment proceedings and had been answered by the assessing authority, including by levy of tax at the applicable rate. Once the question had been dealt with in those proceedings, it could not be reopened by invoking section 57. The proper course was to challenge the assessment order or consequential orders under the Act. The earlier determination, even if inferential, attracted the statutory bar contained in section 57(1).

Conclusion: The revisionist was not entitled to invoke section 57, and the challenge to the Tribunal's order failed.

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