Limitation under Section 35E(3) runs independently; Section 11A cannot be imported into departmental review of provisional assessment.

Section 35E(3) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 operates as a distinct post-adjudication review mechanism, so its one-year limitation runs independently from the date of the adjudication order and cannot be read with Section 11A. The scheme of provisional assessment under Rules 173C, 173CC and 9B was treated as separate from the recovery limitation in Section 11A, which applies to duty not levied, short-levied, short-paid or erroneously refunded from the relevant date. Duty paid under protest did not complete the assessment or bring finality to the dispute. The legislative history also showed that the reference to Section 11A was deliberately omitted when Section 35E was enacted.

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Issues: Whether the limitation prescribed for the Collector's direction under Section 35E(3) to file an appeal against an adjudication order finalising provisional assessment had to be read with the limitation under Section 11A of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944.

Analysis: The order examined the scheme of provisional assessment under Rules 173C, 173CC and 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 and the separate field occupied by Section 11A, which fixes limitation for recovery of duty not levied, short-levied, short-paid or erroneously refunded from the relevant date. It was held that Section 35E is a distinct post-adjudication revisional mechanism enabling superior departmental scrutiny of the legality or propriety of the subordinate officer's order, and that its one-year period runs independently from the date of the adjudication order. The fact that the assessee paid duty under protest did not make the matter a completed adjustment for Section 11A purposes, because the assessment remained under challenge and the dispute had not attained finality. The legislative history of the earlier review provisions also showed that the reference to Section 11A was consciously omitted when Section 35E was enacted.

Conclusion: Section 11A could not be imported into Section 35E(3), and the departmental appeal directed and filed under Section 35E was not barred by limitation.

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