Pending stay and waiver applications bar coercive duty recovery until the appellate remedy is meaningfully considered.

Coercive recovery of disputed central excise duty should not proceed while an assessee's stay and waiver application under the appellate pre-deposit framework remains pending, because doing so may frustrate the statutory appeal remedy. The court applied the principle that such applications must be decided within a reasonable time and that interim protection is warranted until the appellate authority acts. Interim restraint against recovery was therefore considered necessary, alongside a direction for expeditious disposal of the pending stay and waiver request.

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Issues: Whether coercive recovery of disputed central excise duty could be pursued while the assessee's stay and waiver application under the appellate pre-deposit provision remained pending, and what interim protection was warranted.

Analysis: The dispute concerned recovery of excise duty during the pendency of the appeal and the connected application for waiver of pre-deposit and stay. The Court followed the principle that when the appellate authority's power to grant waiver or stay is invoked, it must decide that request within a reasonable time, and recovery in the meantime should not frustrate the statutory remedy. Since the applications had remained undecided, interim restraint against coercive recovery was necessary until the appellate authority acted.

Conclusion: Coercive recovery was restrained for a limited period, and the appellate authority was directed to decide the stay and waiver applications expeditiously; the relief was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was disposed of by granting interim protection against recovery and directing prompt consideration of the pending stay and waiver request.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee's application for waiver of pre-deposit and stay is pending before the appellate authority, coercive recovery of the disputed duty should not be permitted so as to render the statutory appellate remedy ineffective.

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