Refund limitation and duty paid under protest: absence of rejected protest kept excise refund claim alive

Excise refund limitation did not bar recovery where duty had been paid under protest and the department could not show rejection of that protest. The Tribunal treated the written protests against classification and levy as keeping the dispute alive, so the earlier payments were not final for refund purposes. It also held that failure to file an appeal against the classification list did not extinguish the protest or defeat refund rights. On that basis, the refund was held admissible for the earlier period claimed, and the claim was not time-barred.

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Issues: Whether refund of central excise duty was barred for the period prior to the later departmental order, when the assessee had protested against the levy and the protest was not shown to have been rejected.

Analysis: The refund claim turned on the effect of the assessee's written protests against classification and levy, and on the statutory scheme governing payment under protest and refund. The record showed that the assessee had protested from March 1975, that the department had not proved rejection of those protests, and that the dispute remained alive until the later order. Under the refund framework then applicable, limitation did not operate where duty was paid under protest. The absence of a formal appeal against the classification list did not, by itself, extinguish the protest or make the earlier payments final for refund purposes. The Tribunal also held that the department could not rely on technicality to deny refund where the protest had a clear nexus with the later adjudication and the assessee had been allowed to pay under protest.

Conclusion: The refund was not time-barred and was admissible from the earlier period claimed by the assessee; the appeal was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Where excise duty is paid under protest and the department fails to show rejection of that protest, limitation for refund does not apply and the payer is not denied refund merely because no appeal was filed against the classification list.

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