Successive revision barred where a delegatee's section 86 revisional order is treated as the Commissioner's own authority.

A revisional order made under section 86 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act by a Joint Commissioner acting as the Commissioner's delegatee was treated as an exercise of the Commissioner's own authority. The court held that such an order could not be subjected to further suo motu revision under section 85 by another delegatee, because the statutory scheme does not permit successive revisions in a cycle. The result was that the attempt to invoke section 85 failed, as the earlier revisional order was not an order of a subordinate officer amenable to another revision.

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Issues: Whether an order passed under section 86 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 by a Joint Commissioner, acting as a delegatee of the Commissioner, can be subjected to further suo motu revision under section 85 of the same Act by a Senior Joint Commissioner.

Analysis: Section 85 confers suo motu revisional power on the Commissioner in respect of specified assessments and orders passed by officers appointed under section 6(1) to assist him. Section 86 separately provides for revision on application in respect of orders passed by such officers, and the revisional power exercised under that provision by an authorised delegatee is an exercise of the Commissioner's authority itself. Once a Joint Commissioner acts under section 86 as a delegatee of the Commissioner, the resultant order assumes the character of an order of the Commissioner and is not an order of a subordinate officer amenable to further revision under section 85 by another delegatee. Permitting such a second revision would create an impermissible cycle of successive revisions, which the statutory scheme does not contemplate.

Conclusion: The order passed under section 86 could not be revised under section 85 by the Senior Joint Commissioner, and the review application failed.

Ratio Decidendi: An order passed in revision by a delegatee of the Commissioner cannot be subjected to a further revision under the same statutory scheme by another delegatee, unless the statute expressly authorises such successive revision.

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