Pending stay applications bar coercive recovery until the appellate authority decides the request.

Coercive recovery on the basis of an adjudication order should not continue while an assessee's stay application remains pending before the appellate authority. The appellate forum must decide the stay request, and enforcement should not be allowed to proceed merely because the adjudication order is under appeal. The writ court's refusal to grant relief was set aside, and protection from recovery was affirmed until disposal of the stay application.

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Issues: Whether recovery proceedings under the adjudication order could be continued while the assessee's stay application remained pending before the appellate authority.

Analysis: The adjudication order was under challenge in appeal and a stay application had been filed before the appellate authority. Pending consideration of that stay request, the recovery machinery could not be permitted to proceed on the strength of the adjudication order alone. The appellate authority could not decline to decide the stay application and thereby allow enforcement of the order to continue.

Conclusion: Recovery proceedings could not be continued so long as the stay application remained undisposed of by the appellate authority.

Final Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to protection against recovery until disposal of the stay application, and the writ court's refusal to grant relief was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: When an appeal is accompanied by a pending stay application, coercive recovery on the basis of the adjudication order should not proceed until the stay request is finally decided by the appellate authority.

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