Appealability requirement: where no statutory appeal exists, a reference cannot be entertained despite appellate dismissals assuming jurisdiction.

A reference under the statutory reference provision cannot be entertained where the impugned order imposing penal interest was not itself appealable; the court applied the principle that a valid statutory appealable order is a condition precedent to a reference and that appellate authorities' dismissal of appeals made while wrongfully assuming jurisdiction does not convert those dismissals into statutory appeal orders, therefore the reference was rejected and refused.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the reference under Section 66 could be entertained where the impugned order imposing penal interest under Section 18A(6) was not appealable under Section 30(1) and the appellate authorities merely dismissed appeals without assuming lawful jurisdiction.

Issue (i): Whether the reference under Section 66 can be entertained in the circumstances stated.

Analysis: The order imposing penal interest under Section 18A(6) was not made the subject of a statutory appeal under Section 30(1). Appeals were nonetheless filed and dismissed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and the Appellate Tribunal. Where no appeal lies against the original order, an appellate authority's dismissal of an appeal in a wrongful assumption of jurisdiction does not transform its order into one made under the statutory appeal provision; consequently the condition precedent for a reference under Section 66 is not satisfied.

Conclusion: The reference under Section 66 cannot be entertained and is rejected.

Final Conclusion: The High Court will not accept a reference under Section 66 when the underlying order was not appealable and appellate bodies, in the absence of lawful jurisdiction, have only dismissed appeals; the consequence is that the proposed reference is liable to be refused.

Ratio Decidendi: A reference under Section 66 is maintainable only where there exists a valid appealable order under the statute; an appellate body's dismissal of appeals, in the absence of jurisdiction to hear the original appeal, does not create a basis for such reference.

---