Maintainability of departmental appeal fails when no appeal is filed against the person protected by final dropped demand.

Departmental appeal against a common adjudication order was not maintainable where no appeal had been filed against the person in whose favour the demand had been dropped and the order had already attained finality. The review direction contemplated appeals against all affected persons, and the department could not pursue connected penalty relief against another respondent on the basis of the same disputed liability when the primary demand issue had become final. An attempted amendment of the cause-title to substitute the other entity as respondent did not cure the defect because there was no proper appeal against the person whose liability was directly in issue.

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Issues: Whether the departmental appeal was maintainable when no appeal had been filed against one of the persons against whom the adjudication order had dropped the demand and the order had become final as against that person.

Analysis: The Board's review direction contemplated appeals against all the persons to whom different reliefs had been denied or proposed. The department, however, filed the present appeal naming only one respondent, while no appeal was filed against the buyer against whom the demand had been dropped and against whom the adjudication order had already attained finality. In these circumstances, the department had no surviving grievance in respect of the dropped demand and could not pursue the connected penalty relief against the remaining respondent on the footing of the same disputed liability. The attempt to amend the cause-title to substitute the other entity as respondent did not cure the defect in the absence of a proper appeal against the person whose liability was directly in issue.

Conclusion: The appeal was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed.

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