Case: Commnr. Of Central Excise, Delhi Vs. M/S. Pearl Drinks Ltd

judicial & quasi-judicial courts and authorities it implies that the order passed by a lower authority would lose its finality and efficacy in favour of an order passed by a higher authority before whom correctness of such an order may have been assailed in appeal or revision. The doctrine applies regardless whether the higher court or authority affirms or modifies the order passed by the lower court or authority. The juristic basis of the doctrine has been examined by this Court in a long line of decisions. One of the earliest of the said decisions was rendered in Commissioner of Income Tax, Bombay v. Amritlal Bhogilal & Co. (AIR 1958 SC 868 ). The Court in that case declared that as a result of the confirmation or affirmation of the decision of the Tribunal by the Appellate Authority, the original decision merges in appellate decision whereupon it is only the appellate decision which subsists and is operative and capable of enforcement. 12. In State of Madras v. Madurai Mills Co. Ltd. (AIR 1967 SC 681 ) this Court had another occasion to examine the true scope and purport of the doctrine of merger. The court declared that the doctrine of merger was not a doctrine of rigid and universal application nor could it be said that where there are two orders one by the inferior authority and the other by a superior authority they must necessarily merge irrespective of the subject matter of the appeal or the revision or the scope of the proceedings in which such orders are passed. Subsequent decisions of this Court in Gojer Bros. (Pvt.) Ltd. v. Ratan Lal Singh (1974) 2 SCC 453 and S.S. Rathore v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1989) 4 SCC 582 have reiterated and explained that position. No reference to the pronouncements of this Court on the subject can be complete without a reference to the decision of this Court in Kunhayammeds case (supra) and Maurias case (supra). In Kunhayammeds case (supra) a three-Judge Bench of this Court reviewed the decisions rendered on the subject and summed up its conclusions in para 44 of this decision. One of the said conclusions apposite to the case at hand is in the following words: "44. To sum up, our conclusions are: .... (iii) The doctrine of merger is not a doctrine of universal or unlimited application. It will depend on the nature of jurisdiction exercised by the superior forum and the content or subject-matter of challenge laid or capable of being laid shall be determinative of the applicability of merger. The superior jurisdiction should be capable of reversing, modifying or affirming the order put in issue before it. Under Article 136 of the Constitution the Supreme Court may reverse, modify or affirm the judgment-decree or order appealed against while exercising its appellate jurisdiction and not while exercising the discretionary jurisdiction disposing of petition for special leave to appeal. The doctrine of merger can therefore be applied to the former and not to the latter. ..." 13. There is in the light of the above pronouncements no gainsaying that the doctrine of merger will depend largely on the nature of the jurisdiction exercised by the superior court and the content or the subject matter of challenge laid or capable of being laid before it. 14. Applying the above test to the case at hand the doctrine would have no application for the plain and simple reason that the subject matter of the appeal filed by the assessee against the adjudicating authoritys order in original was limited to disallowance of two out of eight deductions claimed by the assessee. The Tribunal was in that appeal concerned only with the question whether the adjudicating authority was justified in disallowing deductions under the said two heads. It had no occasion to examine the admissibility of the deductions under the remaining six heads obviously because the assessees appeal did not question the grant of such deductions. Admissibility of the said deductions could have been raised only by the Revenue who had lost its case qua those deductions before the adjudicating authority. Dismissal of the appeal filed by the assessee could consequently bring finality only to the question of admissibility of deductions under the two heads regarding which the appeal was filed. The said order could not be understood to mean that the Tribunal had expressed any opinion regarding the admissibility of deductions under the remaining six heads which were not the subject matter of scrutiny before the Tribunal. That being so, the proceedings instituted by the Commissioner, Central Excise pursuant to the order passed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs brought up a subject matter which was distinctively different from that which had been examined and determined in the assessees appeal no matter against the same order, especially when the decision was not rendered on a principle of law that could foreclose the Revenues case. The Tribunal obviously failed to notice this distinction and proceeded to apply the doctrine of merger rather mechanically. It failed to take into consideration a situation where an order may be partly in favour and partly against a party in which event the part that goes in favour of the party can be separately assailed by them in appeal filed before the appellate Court or authority but dismissal on merits or otherwise of any such appeal against a part only of the order will not foreclose the right of the party who is aggrieved of the other part of this order. If the doctrine of merger were to be applied in a pedantic or wooden manner it would lead to anomalous results inasmuch as a party who has lost in part can by getting his appeal dismissed claim that the opposite party who may be aggrieved of another part of the very same order cannot assail its correctness no matter the appeal earlier disposed of by the Court or authority had not examined the correctness of that part of the order.

Court's decision (1 = petition accepted / positive for appellant, 0 = rejected / negative): 0

Reasoning from the judgment:
0[ds]13. There is in the light of the above pronouncements no gainsaying that the doctrine of merger will depend largely on the nature of the jurisdiction exercised by the superior court and the content or the subject matter of challenge laid or capable of being laid before it.Applying the above test to the case at hand the doctrine would have no application for the plain and simple reason that the subject matter of the appeal filed by the assessee against the adjudicating authoritys order in original was limited to disallowance of two out of eight deductions claimed by the assessee. The Tribunal was in that appeal concerned only with the question whether the adjudicating authority was justified in disallowing deductions under the said two heads. It had no occasion to examine the admissibility of the deductions under the remaining six heads obviously because the assessees appeal did not question the grant of such deductions. Admissibility of the said deductions could have been raised only by the Revenue who had lost its case qua those deductions before the adjudicating authority. Dismissal of the appeal filed by the assessee could consequently bring finality only to the question of admissibility of deductions under the two heads regarding which the appeal was filed. The said order could not be understood to mean that the Tribunal had expressed any opinion regarding the admissibility of deductions under the remaining six heads which were not the subject matter of scrutiny before the Tribunal. That being so, the proceedings instituted by the Commissioner, Central Excise pursuant to the order passed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs brought up a subject matter which was distinctively different from that which had been examined and determined in the assessees appeal no matter against the same order, especially when the decision was not rendered on a principle of law that could foreclose the Revenues case. The Tribunal obviously failed to notice this distinction and proceeded to apply the doctrine of merger rather mechanically. It failed to take into consideration a situation where an order may be partly in favour and partly against a party in which event the part that goes in favour of the party can be separately assailed by them in appeal filed before the appellate Court or authority but dismissal on merits or otherwise of any such appeal against a part only of the order will not foreclose the right of the party who is aggrieved of the other part of this order. If the doctrine of merger were to be applied in a pedantic or wooden manner it would lead to anomalous results inasmuch as a party who has lost in part can by getting his appeal dismissed claim that the opposite party who may be aggrieved of another part of the very same order cannot assail its correctness no matter the appeal earlier disposed of by the Court or authority had not examined the correctness of that part of the order.