Validity of search in block assessment appeals is a jurisdictional issue the Tribunal must examine before merits.

In an appeal against a block assessment, the legality and validity of the underlying search can be examined as a jurisdictional issue because the search forms the foundation of the assessment. The Tribunal is required to test that jurisdictional basis before going into the merits of the assessment, and the assessee is not barred from raising the objection in appeal merely because no separate writ petition was filed against the search action. The text states that this approach is necessary to determine whether the assessment order can legally stand and that the contrary view on the Tribunal's power was incorrect.

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Issues: Whether, in an appeal against a block assessment, the Tribunal can examine the legality and validity of the search on which the assessment is founded, and whether the assessment order could stand without such jurisdictional scrutiny.

Analysis: A challenge to a block assessment may include the foundational question whether the search itself was legal and valid. The validity of the search goes to the very jurisdiction for making the block assessment, and the Tribunal is obliged to examine that jurisdictional aspect before considering the merits of the assessment. The assessee is not precluded from raising this objection in appeal merely because no writ petition was filed separately against the search action.

Conclusion: The Tribunal had jurisdiction to examine the validity of the search for the purpose of determining the legality of the block assessment, and its contrary view was incorrect.

Final Conclusion: The assessment-related order was set aside and the matter was sent back to the Tribunal for reconsideration in accordance with the law laid down on the Tribunal's power to test the legality of the search.

Ratio Decidendi: In an appeal against a block assessment, the Tribunal must first decide whether the search forming the foundation of the assessment was valid and legal, because the search's legality is a jurisdictional requirement for the assessment itself.

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