Refund cannot reopen final assessment under Section 30; withholding is permitted only within the Act's narrow statutory limits.

Section 30 of the Delhi Sales Tax Act, 1975 required refund where tax paid exceeded tax payable, and the refund authority could not re-open or sit in appeal over a concluded assessment while considering that claim. The dealer was barred by section 30(7) from challenging the correctness of a final assessment through refund proceedings, and withholding refund under section 30(6) was confined to the statutory situation of pending appeal or other proceedings likely to prejudice revenue. As no such proceedings were pending, the authorities had no lawful basis to keep the refund application in abeyance or reject it by re-examining the merits of the assessment.

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Issues: Whether the refund application under Section 30 of the Delhi Sales Tax Act, 1975 could be rejected by re-examining the merits of the concluded assessment and whether the authorities were bound to process the refund in accordance with the statutory mandate.

Analysis: Section 30 contemplated refund where tax paid exceeded the tax payable, and the scheme of the provision showed that once the assessing authority had determined the amount payable, the refund authority could not sit in appeal over that assessment. The dealer was also barred by sub-section (7) from questioning the correctness of a final assessment in a refund claim. The power to withhold refund under sub-section (6) was confined to the situations expressly mentioned in the statute, namely where appeal or other proceedings were pending and revenue was likely to be adversely affected. As no such pending proceedings existed, the authority had no basis to keep the refund application in abeyance or reject it by reopening the assessment.

Conclusion: The rejection of the refund application and the attempted re-assessment were unlawful. The refund application had to be considered and decided under Section 30, and the assessee was entitled to have the refund processed.

Ratio Decidendi: A refund authority cannot reopen or re-judge a final assessment while dealing with a refund claim under Section 30, and refund may be withheld only within the statutory limits expressly provided by the Act.

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