Statutory limitation for service tax appeals bars condonation beyond the outer limit set by law.

Statutory limitation under section 85(3A) of the Finance Act, 1994 required an appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) to be filed within two months, with only a further one-month extension on sufficient cause. Once that outer limit expired, the appellate authority had no statutory power to condone delay further because it is a creature of statute and must act within the limitation scheme expressly provided. Strict application of the limitation period therefore barred belated invocation of the appellate remedy, and the time-bar objection was sustained.

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Issues: Whether the appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) was barred by limitation and whether delay beyond the statutory condonable period could be entertained.

Analysis: Section 85(3A) of the Finance Act, 1994 prescribed a two-month period for filing the appeal, with a further one-month extension only on sufficient cause being shown. The appeal in question had been filed after the expiry of the maximum permissible period. The Tribunal followed the settled position that the appellate authority is a creature of statute and has no power to condone delay beyond the period expressly allowed by the statute. The Tribunal also relied on the principle that statutory limitation must be strictly applied and that belated invocation of remedies without due diligence does not justify condonation.

Conclusion: The delay could not be condoned, and the appeal was rightly rejected as time-barred.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the rejection of the appeal failed because the statutory limit for filing and condoning delay had already been exhausted.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute prescribes a fixed limitation period with a limited extension for sufficient cause, the appellate authority cannot entertain an appeal beyond that outer limit.

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