Parallel appeals against the same assessment action are not maintainable where the operative appellate order was not properly challenged.

Parallel or successive challenges to the same assessment action are not maintainable when the assessee has already secured an appellate adjudication on the merits. Here, the deduction disallowance under section 80P had been affirmed in an earlier first appeal under section 250, so a fresh challenge to the original intimation could not be entertained in place of the proper appeal against the operative appellate order. The Tribunal therefore treated the present challenge as procedurally impermissible and held the appeal not maintainable in its current form, while granting liberty to pursue the earlier appellate order within the prescribed time.

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Issues: Whether the appeal was maintainable when the assessee had already obtained an adjudication on the same order and whether the subsequent challenge to the original intimation could be entertained.

Analysis: The appeal arose from disallowance of deduction under section 80P, which had already been affirmed in a prior first appeal under section 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The assessee, instead of filing the appropriate second appeal against that earlier appellate order, again assailed the original intimation before the appellate authority. The Tribunal held that simultaneous proceedings on the same matter were not legally entertainable and that the assessee could not obtain relief in the present form of challenge.

Conclusion: The appeal was held to be not maintainable in its present form and was dismissed, while liberty was granted to challenge the earlier appellate order within the specified time.

Ratio Decidendi: A party cannot maintain parallel or successive proceedings against the same assessment action before bypassing the proper appellate remedy; the appropriate challenge must be directed against the operative order already passed on merits.

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