Statutory appellate remedy must usually be exhausted before writ review in tax assessment disputes.

An efficacious statutory appellate remedy under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 must ordinarily be exhausted before invoking writ jurisdiction, and jurisdictional objections or mixed questions of fact and law should first be examined by the competent appellate authority. Article 226 is confined to review of the decision-making process and is not meant for merits-based adjudication of disputed assessments at the first instance. The assessment was therefore not treated as a substitute for the statutory appeal route, but the assessing authority was directed to complete the final assessment on merits and in accordance with law after giving the assessee an opportunity to be heard.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition could be entertained in view of the statutory appellate remedy under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, and whether the assessment had to be completed afresh after granting opportunity to the assessee.

Analysis: The assessment dispute arose from a provisional order for the assessment year 2013-14, with the challenge being that the pre-amended provision on input tax credit under Section 19 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 ought to have been applied. The Court held that the Act provides a complete appellate framework under Sections 51, 58, 59 and 60, and that exhaustion of the appeal remedy is the rule while bypassing it is only an exception in exceptional circumstances. It emphasized that appellate authorities are the proper forums to examine jurisdictional objections, mixed questions of fact and law, and the original records, and that writ jurisdiction under Article 226 is meant to scrutinise the decision-making process and not to undertake the merits-based adjudication of disputed assessments in the first instance.

Conclusion: The writ petition was not treated as a substitute for the statutory appeal remedy, but the respondent was directed to complete the final assessment on merits and in accordance with law after affording opportunity to the assessee, leaving the petitioner to pursue the statutory remedy if aggrieved by the final assessment.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an efficacious statutory appeal mechanism exists, writ jurisdiction should ordinarily not be invoked to bypass assessment adjudication, and jurisdictional objections relating to tax assessment should first be examined by the competent appellate authority.

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