Reference under Central Excise law was not maintainable after a final Tribunal decision where an earlier interim-order request had failed.

A reference application under Section 35G(3) of the Central Excise Act was treated as not maintainable where an earlier application had already been rejected as arising from an interim order and the Tribunal later decided the appeal on merits. The proper course was to seek reference after the final appellate order, but the present application still sought reference on questions already concluded in that final order. On that basis, the application was held misconceived and liable to dismissal.

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Issues: Whether the reference application under Section 35G(3) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 was maintainable after the Tribunal had already rejected an earlier application as arising from an interim order and had subsequently disposed of the appeal on merits.

Analysis: The earlier application under Section 35G(1) had been rejected as not maintainable because it arose from an interim order. The proper course was to seek reference after the Tribunal had finally decided the appeal on merits. As the present application did not correctly conform to that course and sought reference in respect of questions already concluded in the final order, it was held to be misconceived.

Conclusion: The reference application under Section 35G(3) was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed.

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