Writ jurisdiction and statutory appeal: revised VAT assessments were left to appeal, with writ time excluded for limitation.

Revised assessment orders under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 were challenged in writ proceedings after revisional notices had been issued, but no objections had been filed to those notices. In that circumstance, the Madras High Court declined to examine the assessment merits in writ jurisdiction and directed the assessee to pursue the statutory appellate remedy under Section 51 of the Act. For limitation, the period spent in the writ petitions was to be excluded under Section 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963, and the appeal was to be filed within the remaining prescribed time, subject to the applicable pre-deposit requirement.

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Issues: Whether the revised assessment orders under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 should be interfered with in writ jurisdiction when the petitioner had not filed objections to the revisional notices, and whether the petitioner should be relegated to the statutory appellate remedy with exclusion of the time spent in the writ petitions.

Analysis: The revised assessment orders were passed after issuance of revisional notices, but no objections were filed by the petitioner. In that situation, the Court declined to examine the merits of the assessment challenges in writ proceedings and held that the proper course was to pursue the statutory appeal under Section 51 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006. For limitation purposes, the period spent in prosecuting the writ petitions was directed to be excluded by applying Section 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963, and the appellate remedy was to be pursued within the prescribed time after such exclusion, subject to the statutory pre-deposit requirements.

Conclusion: The writ petitions were not entertained on merits and the petitioner was relegated to the statutory appellate remedy, with the benefit of exclusion of the writ period for computing limitation.

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