Baba Leather Impex Pvt. Ltd. vs Commissioner of Central Excise (Adjudication)

Badar Durrez Ahmed, J.—These appeals are directed against the common final order dated 07.10.2008 whereby the appellants� appeals before the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal had been dismissed.

Initially the appellants had filed writ petitions being WP (C) Nos. 5438/2008, 5441/2008, 5448/2008, 5449/2008 & 5452/2008 against the order passed by the Tribunal in respect of the applications for waiver of pre-deposit of duties and penalties. The said writ petitions were disposed of by our order dated 12.08.2008 granting an opportunity to the appellants to move further applications before the Tribunal taking up the plea of financial hardship specifically. We had also permitted the appellants to place all the material on record which may not have been there before the Tribunal in the first round with regard to the financial hardship. The learn for the appellants had stated that the applications would be moved before the Tribunal within three weeks along with all the materials and documents. We had directed the Tribunal to dispose of all such applications, if made within the said period of three weeks, after giving the appellants an opportunity of hearing. We had also made it clear that in case no such applications were filed within three weeks, the impugned order passed by the Tribunal on 02.06.2008 would operate fully.

The present appeals arise out of the common order dated 07.10.2008 wherein the Tribunal has observed that there were no applications filed by the appellants as directed by the High Court and that the appellants had only filed a set of documents on 02.09.2008 containing written submissions, balance sheets etc. Although the learn for the appellants had submitted that the written submissions be treated as applications, the Tribunal was not impressed by this submission and had decided that as per the procedure laid down in the CEGAT (Procedure) Rules for filing an application, the documents filed by the appellants did not conform to the requirements of an application. Consequently, the Tribunal, after holding that there were no applications on record inasmuch as the same were not in accordance with the Rules, particularly, as the same did not contain any verification, decided that the appeals themselves were liable to be dismissed for non-compliance of the provisions of Section 129E of the Customs Act, 1962.

We find no merit in the appeals. The same are dismissed. All pending applications also stand dispose of.