Mandatory pre-deposit and waiver must be decided first before merits; failure to do so justifies remand.

An appellate authority cannot decide an excise appeal on merits while bypassing the mandatory pre-deposit requirement under Section 35F and the connected waiver application. Where the waiver request is not first quantified or disposed of, the assessee is denied a proper opportunity to comply with the pre-deposit condition, and the resulting order is procedurally unsustainable. The appellate order was therefore set aside and the matter remanded for fresh consideration, starting with the waiver application and thereafter, if compliance is made, the merits.

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Issues: Whether the appellate order was sustainable when the appeal was dealt with on merits without first deciding the application for waiver of pre-deposit and giving the assessee an opportunity to comply with the pre-deposit requirement, and whether the matter required remand for fresh adjudication.

Analysis: The statutory threshold of pre-deposit under Section 35F had to be crossed before the appeal could be heard on merits, unless waiver was first determined. The order impugned proceeded to decide the merits and at the same time rejected the appeal for non-compliance with the waiver condition without first quantifying or disposing of the waiver request. This deprived the assessee of a proper opportunity to comply and rendered the order procedurally unsustainable. The controversy on merits was also noted to require reconsideration by the appellate authority after proper waiver proceedings.

Conclusion: The impugned order was not sustainable and the matter was required to be sent back for fresh consideration, beginning with the waiver application and followed by decision on merits after compliance, if any.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded to the extent of setting aside the impugned order and obtaining a remand for de novo consideration.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate authority cannot decide an appeal on merits while bypassing the mandatory pre-deposit stage and the connected waiver request; where that procedure is not properly followed, the order is liable to be set aside and the matter remanded.

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