Rectified assessment orders preserve appellate rights, and bona fide rectification proceedings may justify exclusion of limitation time.

An appeal against a rectification order under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act could not be rejected as not maintainable and time barred where rectification had resulted in a substituted order. A rectified assessment order replaces the earlier order to that extent, so the statutory appeal lies against the rectified order. If rectification is refused, the assessee remains entitled to appeal against the original assessment, and the time spent bona fide pursuing rectification may be excluded under Section 14 of the Limitation Act. The return memo was therefore unsustainable, and the appeal had to be numbered and heard on merits.

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Issues: Whether the appeal filed against the rectification order under Section 84 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 was maintainable and could be rejected as time barred.

Analysis: Rectification under Section 84 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 operates on the footing of an error apparent on the face of the record. Where the rectification application results in a fresh or substituted order, the earlier assessment order stands superseded to that extent, and the appellate remedy lies against the order as rectified. If, instead, rectification is refused, the assessee is not left remediless and may still pursue the statutory appeal against the original assessment order, with the period spent in bona fide prosecution of the rectification remedy capable of exclusion under Section 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963.

Conclusion: The return memo treating the appeal as not maintainable and time barred was unsustainable, and the petitioner was entitled to have the appeal numbered and heard on merits.

Final Conclusion: The impugned communications were quashed, and the appellate authority was directed to entertain and decide the appeal in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Once an assessment order is rectified and a substituted order emerges, the statutory right of appeal against the rectified order cannot be denied; alternatively, where rectification proceedings are unsuccessfully pursued in good faith, the intervening time may be excluded while computing limitation for the appeal.

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