Maintainability of customs appeal fails where grievance is only non-compliance with a direction to pass a speaking order.

Where a grievance was limited to non-compliance with a lower appellate direction to pass a speaking order on exemption denial in a bill of entry, the Tribunal treated the matter as one for the jurisdictional Executive Commissioner rather than a further appeal. It noted that an appellate body cannot supervise the functioning of Customs officers within a particular Commissionerate. The appeal was therefore held not maintainable and dismissed.

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Issues: Whether the appeal was maintainable before the Tribunal when the grievance was only that the adjudicating authority had not passed a speaking order pursuant to the direction of the lower appellate authority under Section 17(5) of the Customs Act, 1962.

Analysis: The Tribunal found that the lower appellate authority had merely directed the adjudicating authority to pass a speaking order on the denial of exemption benefit claimed in the bill of entry. Since the complaint was that this direction had not been followed, the appropriate course was to take the matter to the jurisdictional Executive Commissioner. The Tribunal held that, as an appellate body, it had no authority to l the functioning of Customs officers within a particular Commissionerate.

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

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