Self-contained settlement code limits refund adjustment and review; MVAT powers cannot be imported without express statutory authority.

A special settlement statute operating as a self-contained code cannot be expanded by importing powers from the MVAT Act unless the statute expressly permits it, so settlement authorities may not use MVAT refund-adjustment powers to reopen or review settlement orders. Settlement dues must be computed year-wise under the statutory mechanism, and a refund from one financial year cannot be adjusted against liabilities for other years in separate settlement applications. Review under Section 15 requires a genuine error in the settlement order, prejudicial to revenue, supported by an existing refund-adjustment order; in the absence of any prior Section 50 order, review is not validly exercised and the review orders are unsustainable.

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Issues: (i) Whether the authorities under the Settlement Act could invoke powers under the MVAT Act while exercising jurisdiction under the Settlement Act and review settlement orders on that basis. (ii) Whether the amount payable under the Settlement Act could be recomputed by adjusting a refund of one financial year against the dues of other financial years for which settlement applications were filed. (iii) Whether, in the absence of any order under Section 50 of the MVAT Act adjusting the refund, the review power under Section 15 of the Settlement Act could be validly exercised.

Issue (i): Whether the authorities under the Settlement Act could invoke powers under the MVAT Act while exercising jurisdiction under the Settlement Act and review settlement orders on that basis.

Analysis: The Settlement Act was treated as a self-contained code with its own scheme for eligibility, computation, settlement, rectification, review, and finality. The designated authority under the Settlement Act, though also an authority under the MVAT Act, had to act within the confines of the Settlement Act when dealing with settlement proceedings. The powers under one enactment could not be imported into proceedings under another enactment unless the statute expressly permitted it. No provision in the Settlement Act authorised the authorities to exercise Section 50 powers of the MVAT Act while determining settlement arrears or while reviewing settlement orders.

Conclusion: The authorities under the Settlement Act could not invoke MVAT Act powers for settlement review, and the impugned exercise was without jurisdiction.

Issue (ii): Whether the amount payable under the Settlement Act could be recomputed by adjusting a refund of one financial year against the dues of other financial years for which settlement applications were filed.

Analysis: The computation under the Settlement Act had to proceed year-wise and in accordance with the statutory mechanism under Sections 6 and 8, read with the relevant annexures. The Act contemplated adjustment of payments relating to the statutory order for the very year in question, not an inter-year adjustment of refund from another financial year. Separate applications were required for separate financial years, and the arrears had to be determined as they stood on the relevant date. Since the Settlement Act did not provide for recomputation of settlement dues by importing a refund adjustment from another year, such recalculation could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The settlement amount could not be recomputed by adjusting the refund of another financial year against the dues under the settlement applications.

Issue (iii): Whether, in the absence of any order under Section 50 of the MVAT Act adjusting the refund, the review power under Section 15 of the Settlement Act could be validly exercised.

Analysis: Review under Section 15 required an error in the settlement order that was prejudicial to revenue. Here, no order under Section 50 of the MVAT Act existed on the relevant dates, and no proceedings for adjustment of the refund had been completed under that provision. In the absence of such an order, there was no foundational error in the settlement order capable of being reviewed. The later attempt to reopen the settlement through review proceedings amounted to supplying a jurisdictional basis that did not exist when the settlement orders were passed.

Conclusion: The review power under Section 15 could not be exercised in the absence of a prior Section 50 order adjusting the refund.

Final Conclusion: The review orders were ultra vires and unsustainable, and the refund already determined in favour of the petitioner was directed to be returned with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special settlement statute is a self-contained code, the authorities acting under it cannot import powers from another taxing statute unless expressly authorised, and review cannot be invoked to correct a supposed error that arises only from an unpassed or non-existent order under the other statute.

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