Review under Customs law is not maintainable once the original adjudication is set aside and remanded for fresh decision.

A review or revenue appeal under Section 129D(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 is not maintainable where the earlier Tribunal order has already set aside the original adjudication and remanded the matter for fresh decision. In that situation, no subsisting adjudication order remains in force for review, and the review process cannot proceed on the basis of a non-existent order. The objection that the remand order was not properly considered went to the root of maintainability. The proceeding was therefore rejected at the threshold, and no merits determination was made on the valuation dispute for drawback.

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Issues: Whether the revenue appeal was maintainable when the earlier order of the Tribunal had remanded the matter for fresh adjudication and no subsisting adjudication order remained in force for review under Section 129D(1) of the Customs Act, 1962.

Analysis: The earlier Tribunal order had set aside the original adjudication and directed fresh consideration by the Commissioner. In that situation, the impugned review process could not validly proceed on the premise that a reviewable order of the Commissioner continued to exist. The objection that the Board had not taken the remand order into account, and that the review was therefore without proper application of mind, went to the root of the maintainability of the appeal.

Conclusion: The appeal was held to be non-maintainable and was rejected.

Final Conclusion: The proceeding ended at the threshold on maintainability, leaving no adjudication on the merits of the valuation dispute for drawback.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an adjudication order has already been set aside and the matter remanded for fresh decision, a review or appeal premised on that set-aside order is not maintainable under Section 129D(1) of the Customs Act, 1962.

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