Rectification power survives appeal and revision where statute preserves it, so the assessing authority must consider the request.

Section 55(3-A) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 preserves the assessing authority's power to rectify an assessment even after the original order has been taken in appeal or revision. The authority cannot decline to consider a rectification petition merely because earlier appellate or revisional proceedings were concluded; doing so amounts to failure to exercise a statutory power that remains available. The Madras HC held that the refusal to entertain the petition on that ground was unsustainable, set aside the decision, and remitted the matter for fresh consideration of the rectification request after hearing the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority could refuse to entertain a rectification petition on the ground that the original assessment had already been subjected to appeal and revision, despite the power under section 55(3-A) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: Section 55(3-A) expressly permits the assessing authority to exercise rectification powers even when the original assessment order has been the subject of appeal or revision. The earlier dismissal of the petitioner's appeal and the confirmation of adverse orders did not extinguish the statutory power of rectification. By declining to consider the petition solely with reference to the earlier proceedings, the assessing authority failed to exercise a jurisdiction that the statute specifically preserved. That amounted to an abdication of statutory duty rather than a lawful refusal on merits.

Conclusion: The refusal to consider the rectification petition was unsustainable and was set aside in favour of the petitioner.

Final Conclusion: The matter was remitted to the assessing authority for fresh consideration of the rectification request in accordance with law, after giving the petitioner an opportunity of hearing.

Ratio Decidendi: The power of rectification under section 55(3-A) survives prior appellate or revisional proceedings, and an assessing authority cannot decline to exercise that power merely because the assessment has already been challenged earlier.

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