Connected batch precedent governed the VAT proviso dispute, and the writ appeals were disposed of accordingly.

Writ appeals concerning the proviso to Section 19(2)(v) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, as inserted by the 2013 amendment, were disposed of in terms of an earlier common judgment in the connected batch. The Court noted that the parties accepted that the issue was already covered by that prior decision and therefore followed the same reasoning without fresh independent adjudication on the merits. No separate costs order was made.

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Issues: Whether the writ appeals challenging the learned Single Judge's view on the proviso to Section 19(2)(v) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, as inserted by the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax (Fifth Amendment) Act, 2013, were to be disposed of in terms of the earlier common judgment in the connected batch.

Analysis: The appeals were heard along with connected matters and the parties submitted that the issue was already covered by the earlier common judgment dated 31.03.2022 in the connected batch. The present order adopted that decision and disposed of the appeals in the same lines, without recording any fresh independent adjudication on the merits of the statutory issue.

Conclusion: The writ appeals were disposed of in terms of the earlier common judgment, with no separate costs order.

Final Conclusion: The dispute was concluded by following the ratio of the earlier connected batch decision, and the present appeals did not result in any fresh substantive determination beyond that adopted outcome.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a subsequent batch of appeals is fully governed by an earlier binding decision on the same issue, the court may dispose of the later matters in terms of that decision without fresh merits adjudication.

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