Appellate pre-deposit requirement applies to appeals filed after commencement, regardless of an earlier show cause notice.

The amended appellate pre-deposit requirement under Section 35F of the Central Excise Act, read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, applies to appeals filed on or after its commencement date, and the date of the earlier show cause notice does not govern its operation. The provision was treated as one regulating appellate procedure, not the charging or taxing provision, so arguments based on earlier notice dates and decisions on divergent views were rejected. The mandatory pre-deposit requirement therefore applied to the appeals, and the challenge to the defect memos failed.

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Issues: Whether appeals filed on or after 06.08.2014 were required to comply with the amended pre-deposit requirement under Section 35F of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, even though the show cause notice had been issued earlier.

Analysis: The amended Section 35F was held applicable to appeals filed on or after its commencement date. The earlier show cause notice did not control the applicability of the amended appellate pre-deposit regime. Reliance on decisions dealing with divergent views was rejected, as the interpretation favouring the assessee was found inapplicable to a provision governing appellate procedure and not the charging or taxing provision itself.

Conclusion: The mandatory pre-deposit requirement applied to the appeals, and the challenge to the defect memos failed; the finding was in favour of the Revenue and against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The amended appellate pre-deposit regime was upheld as applicable to appeals instituted on or after 06.08.2014, regardless of the earlier date of the show cause notice.

Ratio Decidendi: The amended pre-deposit requirement under Section 35F applies to appeals filed on or after its effective date, and the date of issuance of the show cause notice does not govern its applicability.

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