Limited cancellation remedy cannot bypass a statutory bar on appeal against best judgment assessment under tax law.

Section 21 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act provides only a limited remedy to seek cancellation of a section 19(4) assessment on specified grounds such as sufficient cause, non-service of notice, or denial of reasonable opportunity. Section 32 permits appeals against assessments under section 19 and certain specified orders, but expressly bars an appeal against a section 19(4) assessment. An appeal from a section 21 order cannot be used to reopen the barred section 19(4) assessment itself; it is confined to examining whether cancellation was properly refused on the statutory grounds available under section 21.

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Issues: Whether an order passed under section 21 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1957 cancelling or refusing to cancel an assessment made under section 19(4) is appealable under section 32 of the Act.

Analysis: Section 21 provides a limited remedy enabling the assessee, within one month of the notice of demand, to seek cancellation of an assessment made under section 19(4) on specified grounds such as sufficient cause for not making the return, non-service of notice, or lack of reasonable opportunity to comply with the notice. Section 32 confers a right of appeal against assessments under section 19 and certain specified orders, but expressly bars an appeal in respect of an assessment made under section 19(4). The appellate forum cannot have a wider jurisdiction than the authority whose order is challenged. An appeal against an order under section 21 can therefore examine only whether the refusal to cancel the section 19(4) assessment was justified on the grounds permitted by section 21, and cannot indirectly reopen the validity of the section 19(4) assessment itself. The statutory bar in section 32 cannot be circumvented by treating the section 21 proceeding as an appeal on liability.

Conclusion: An order under section 21 is not appealable under section 32 to the extent it is used to challenge the section 19(4) assessment itself; the assessee had no right of appeal against the order under section 21.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute expressly bars an appeal against a best judgment assessment, the assessee cannot indirectly secure appellate review of that barred assessment through an appeal from an ancillary order refusing cancellation of the assessment.

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