Pending appeal against assessment order justifies deferral of recovery proceedings, while writ review on merits is not entertained.

Where an assessee had already filed an appeal against the assessment order, writ jurisdiction was not invoked to decide the assessment on merits. However, because recovery proceedings had been started under the impugned order, the court directed that recovery be deferred until disposal of the pending appeal. The writ petition was thus disposed of with protection limited to the recovery action, leaving the appellate remedy to be decided in the ordinary course.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition challenging the assessment order and the consequential recovery proceedings should be entertained when an appeal against the same order was already filed, and whether recovery ought to be deferred pending disposal of the appeal.

Analysis: The petitioner had already availed the appellate remedy against the impugned assessment order. In view of the pending appeal, the writ jurisdiction was not invoked for adjudication on the merits of the assessment. At the same time, since recovery proceedings had been initiated pursuant to the impugned order, protection was warranted pending consideration of the appeal.

Conclusion: The writ petition was disposed of by directing the respondent to defer the recovery proceedings until disposal of the appeal filed by the petitioner.

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