Pre-deposit waiver orders cannot be reopened through fresh modification requests once jurisdiction is exercised and heard.

Once the Tribunal has exercised jurisdiction to decide waiver or pre-deposit, it cannot later reopen, modify, or recall that order through a fresh modification request. The applicant's plea that it had not been heard and that counsel was absent for medical reasons failed because the Revenue had already been heard when the stay order was passed. The application was therefore found to lack merit, and the earlier order was left undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether the Tribunal could recall or modify its earlier stay order directing pre-deposit, and whether the applicant had shown sufficient cause for such recall.

Analysis: The application sought recall of the earlier stay order on the ground that the applicant had not been heard and that the absence of counsel was due to medical reasons. The Tribunal noted that the Revenue had been heard while passing the stay order, and relied on the binding principle laid down by the High Court that once the Tribunal has exercised jurisdiction to pass an order on waiver of pre-deposit, it cannot subsequently modify that order like an appellate authority or keep altering it on repeated modification requests.

Conclusion: The Tribunal held that the stay order could not be recalled or modified and that the application lacked merit.

Ratio Decidendi: After the Tribunal has exercised jurisdiction to decide waiver or pre-deposit, it has no power to subsequently modify that order by entertaining a fresh modification request.

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