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Issues: (i) Whether the appeal against the adjudication order was barred by time on the footing that service of the order had been validly effected by affixation at the village address; (ii) whether the show cause notice and the adjudication proceedings could be sustained when the notice was not validly served on the detenu and the presumption of service was unavailable.
Issue (i): Whether the appeal against the adjudication order was barred by time on the footing that service of the order had been validly effected by affixation at the village address.
Analysis: The record showed that the notice and later the adjudication order were sent to an address which the customs authorities assumed to be the appellant's residence, although the registered envelope itself indicated that he had left that village and was residing in Amritsar. No reliable material showed that he had ever personally supplied the village address or that service at that address was legally effective after the authorities had notice of the changed residence. In these circumstances, affixation at the village house was treated as an empty formality and could not start limitation against the appellant.
Conclusion: The finding that the appeal was time-barred was and the limitation objection failed in favour of the assessee.
Issue (ii): Whether the show cause notice and the adjudication proceedings could be sustained when the notice was not validly served on the detenu and the presumption of service was unavailable.
Analysis: Communications to a detenu had to pass through the jail authority under the detention conditions, and the alleged direct service on the detenu did not satisfy that requirement. The authorities also failed to establish proper service at the correct address, so the statutory presumption of service could not be invoked. Since the adjudication had proceeded ex parte without valid notice, the foundation of the proceedings was defective.
Conclusion: The show cause notice, the adjudication order, and the Board's dismissal order were unsustainable and were set aside in favour of the assessee.
Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded because no valid service was proved, the limitation objection could not stand, and the entire adjudication was quashed for want of proper notice.
Ratio Decidendi: Where the department is aware that the noticee has shifted residence or is in lawful custody, service cannot be presumed from delivery or affixation at an incorrect address, and an ex parte adjudication founded on such defective service is liable to be quashed.
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