Approved classification and exemption cannot be overturned by fresh demand proceedings without valid review or notice.

An approved classification list and an express exemption cannot be displaced through fresh demand proceedings unless the approval is first validly reviewed or otherwise set aside by competent legal process. A show cause notice issued without challenging the existing approval was therefore incompetent, and a review in another assessee's matter could not automatically affect the present assessee. The adjudication order was also vitiated because it went beyond the notice by confirming future demands that had not yet been raised. The commentary concludes that proceedings of this kind are illegal and unsustainable where they attempt to override an unrevoked classification and exemption order.

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Issues: Whether the show cause notice and subsequent demand proceedings were valid after the Assistant Collector had approved the classification list and granted exemption, and whether the appellate order sustaining those proceedings could stand.

Analysis: The appellants had obtained an express order exempting the fibre glass reinforced plastic roofing sheets under Notification No. 68/71 and their revised classification list had been approved. That order was never validly reviewed by the competent authority. The Tribunal held that a review in another assessee's case could not automatically affect the appellants' case, and that the show cause notice issued without first setting aside the approved classification was incompetent. The adjudication order also travelled beyond the notice by confirming future demands that had not yet been raised, which further vitiated the proceedings. The appellate order suffered from the same legal defects.

Conclusion: The proceedings were illegal and unsustainable, and the appeal succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Once a classification list has been expressly approved and the underlying exemption granted, it cannot be displaced through fresh demand proceedings without a proper review or other competent legal process addressed to that very order.

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