Timely refund claim under Customs law can survive internal departmental delay in forwarding papers to the proper authority.

A refund application addressed to the Assistant Collector was treated as filed within limitation under the Customs Act where it was presented to the jurisdictional Superintendent of Central Excise within time and the later delay occurred only in internal departmental forwarding. The accepted principle was that delivery to the Superintendent in the same office set-up amounted to timely presentation to the proper authority, and the claimant could not be prejudiced by the department's own delay in transmitting the papers. The refund claim was therefore regarded as time-barred objection being unavailable and the limitation objection failed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether a refund application addressed to the Assistant Collector but presented within time to the jurisdictional Superintendent of Central Excise, and forwarded thereafter to the Assistant Collector after expiry of the limitation period, could be treated as a refund application made within time under section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Analysis: The application was admittedly addressed to the proper authority and was received by the jurisdictional Superintendent within the limitation period. The delay occurred only in the internal transmission from the Superintendent's office to the Assistant Collector's office, both functioning in the same building. The accepted legal position, as applied, was that presentation to the jurisdictional Superintendent in such circumstances amounted to presentation to the Assistant Collector within time, and the claimant could not be prejudiced by departmental delay in forwarding the papers.

Conclusion: The refund claim was held to be within limitation and the objection based on delay was rejected, in favour of the assessee.

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