Provisional assessment cannot be appealed before final determination; appellate interference is premature and remand follows.

Appeals against provisional assessment are premature until the assessment is finally determined, because no concluded adjudication exists for appellate scrutiny. Where the original authority has not passed a finalised assessment order, the appellate order cannot stand and the matter must return to the Assistant Commissioner for fresh consideration. The authority must finalise the provisional assessment after giving the parties an opportunity of hearing and observing natural justice. The appellate orders were therefore set aside and the cases remanded for reconsideration and finalisation in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether an appeal could be entertained against orders relating to provisional assessment when finalisation of assessment had not yet taken place, and whether the appellate orders deserved to be set aside and the matter remanded for fresh adjudication.

Analysis: The orders of the Assistant Commissioner showed that the provisional assessment cases were to be finalised accordingly, but no finalised assessment order had in fact been passed. In the absence of finalisation, there was no concluded adjudication giving rise to a proper grievance for appellate scrutiny. The appellate order was therefore unsustainable. The matter required reconsideration by the original authority, which had to finalise the provisional assessment after giving the parties an opportunity of hearing and following the principles of natural justice.

Conclusion: The appellate orders were set aside and the cases were remanded to the Assistant Commissioner for fresh consideration and finalisation of the provisional assessments in accordance with law.

Final Conclusion: The assessee succeeded on the preliminary appellate objection, but the customs dispute itself was left for fresh decision by the original authority.

Ratio Decidendi: An appeal does not lie against a provisional assessment order until the assessment is finally determined, and any appellate interference at that stage is premature.

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