Joint appeal by firm and partner is permissible when penalties arise from the same transaction and single adjudication order.

A joint appeal by a partnership firm and its partner was treated as maintainable where both penalties arose from the same transaction and were imposed by a single adjudication order. The Tribunal accepted that, in the absence of any procedural bar, the fact that the liability stemmed from one cause of action allowed a combined challenge rather than separate appeals. It also relied on the rationale underlying joint trial principles for persons accused of the same transaction. The appeal memorandum nevertheless had to be amended to reflect both the firm and the partner as appellants.

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Issues: Whether a partnership firm and its partner, penalised under a single adjudication order on the same cause of action, could maintain one joint appeal before the Tribunal.

Analysis: The penalties on the firm and the partner arose out of the same alleged act of dealing with non-duty-paid goods and were imposed by a single order. The Tribunal followed its earlier view that where the impugned order is not a multiple order and the liability flows from the same transaction, a joint appeal is permissible. Reference was also made to the principle underlying Section 223 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which permits persons accused of the same offence committed in the course of the same transaction to be tried together. On that reasoning, the Tribunal held that no prohibition in the procedure rules barred a joint appeal in such circumstances.

Conclusion: A joint appeal by the firm and its partner was held maintainable, but the memorandum of appeal had to be amended so that both the firm and the partner were shown as appellants.

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