Appealability of a communication depends on whether it merely conveys a prior decision or leaves the substantive classification dispute pending.

A communication that merely conveys an underlying adjudicatory decision is not independently appealable. Where classification show cause notices remain pending, the notices themselves must be decided on merits and the communication has no separate operative effect. Where the Assistant Collector has already disposed of the notices, the Superintendent's letter only informs the party of that decision and does not constitute an appealable order in its own right. On either view, the lower appellate authority's approach was upheld and the appeal failed.

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Issues: Whether the appeal could succeed against the Superintendent's letter when the underlying show cause notices regarding classification were stated to be pending, or, alternatively, whether the letter was only a communication of the Assistant Collector's decision and therefore not independently appealable.

Analysis: The appellate forum noted that the record admitted of two possible situations. If the show cause notices were still pending, they had themselves to be decided and the Superintendent's letter had no operative significance for the appeal. If, on the other hand, the Assistant Collector had already disposed of the notices, the letter merely conveyed that decision and did not amount to an appealable order in its own right. The lower appellate authority's approach covered both contingencies without causing injustice.

Conclusion: The appeal was held to be without infirmity in the reasoning of the lower appellate authority and was dismissed.

Final Conclusion: The impugned communication did not furnish a basis for appellate relief, and the dismissal left the lower appellate authority's view undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A communication that merely conveys an underlying adjudicatory decision is not independently appealable, and where the substantive classification dispute is still pending, the proper course is to have that dispute decided on merits.

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