Refund claim cannot reopen an unchallenged assessment or classification order through indirect challenge later.

A refund claim was held not maintainable where the assessee had not appealed against the assessment or classification reflected in the bill of entry. The Tribunal applied the principle that an appealable adjudication order, once left unchallenged through the statutory appellate remedy, cannot later be questioned indirectly through a refund application on the basis that the original assessment was wrong. As the alleged error lay in the unassailed assessment and classification, the refund route could not be used to reopen that determination, and the appeal failed.

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Issues: Whether a refund claim was maintainable when the assessee had not challenged the assessment or classification order in appeal.

Analysis: The refund claim arose after clearance of the imported goods, but no appeal had been filed against the assessment or classification settled in the bill of entry. The Tribunal applied the settled principle that where an appealable adjudication order is not challenged through the statutory appellate remedy, its correctness cannot later be questioned indirectly by a refund application based on an alleged error in that order.

Conclusion: The refund claim was not maintainable, and the appeal failed.

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