Civil court jurisdiction survives tax finality clauses where assessments are ultra vires, and composite illegal levies may fail in toto.

Civil court jurisdiction over sales tax assessments was not excluded because the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939 contained no express or necessarily implied bar when the taxing authority acted wholly without jurisdiction or outside the statute; the suits were therefore maintainable. The limitation plea also failed because the statutory provision invoked applied to damages or compensation claims, not to suits seeking refund or declaration against an illegal levy. A composite assessment containing lawful and unlawful items was treated as invalid in toto where severance would require the court to undertake reassessment, which lay outside its function.

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Issues: (i) whether the civil court's jurisdiction to entertain suits challenging sales tax assessments was barred by the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939; (ii) whether the suits were barred by limitation under the relevant statutory limitation provisions; and (iii) whether an assessment containing both lawful and unlawful components had to fail in toto or could be severed.

Issue (i): whether the civil court's jurisdiction to entertain suits challenging sales tax assessments was barred by the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939.

Analysis: The statutory finality attached to assessment orders operated only for the purposes of the Act. In the absence of an express or necessarily implied exclusion of civil jurisdiction, a civil suit remained maintainable where the taxing authority acted wholly outside the statute or without jurisdiction. The later exclusionary provision introduced by section 18-A was not in force when the suits were filed, and sections 11 and 12 did not themselves oust the civil court's power to examine fundamental illegality.

Conclusion: The civil court's jurisdiction was not barred, and the suits were competent.

Issue (ii): whether the suits were barred by limitation under the relevant statutory limitation provisions.

Analysis: Section 18 was confined to suits for damages or compensation in respect of acts done under the Act and did not govern suits for refund or declaration challenging an illegal levy. Article 16 of the Indian Limitation Act was also inapplicable on the facts found. The suits were therefore not defeated by the plea of limitation.

Conclusion: The suits were not barred by limitation.

Issue (iii): whether an assessment containing both lawful and unlawful components had to fail in toto or could be severed.

Analysis: Where an assessment is a composite levy on a mixed turnover, excision of the unlawful part may require the court itself to undertake reassessment, which is outside its function. The distinction between severable item-wise assessments and composite assessments was applied, and the inclusion of transactions outside the taxing authority's jurisdiction infected the assessment as a whole.

Conclusion: The assessment was rightly treated as invalid in toto.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the tax assessments succeeded on jurisdictional and severability grounds, but the State's appeals failed because the civil suits were maintainable, not time-barred, and the composite assessments were void as made.

Ratio Decidendi: Civil court jurisdiction is not excluded by a taxing statute's finality clause unless exclusion is express or necessarily implied, and a composite assessment including items wholly outside the taxing authority's jurisdiction may be invalidated in its entirety where severance would require reassessment by the court.

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