Inordinate adjudication delay can render excise demands unsustainable where stale allegations are kept alive without justification.

In excise proceedings alleging non-accountal and clandestine removal, an adjudication completed 17 years after the show cause notice was found unsustainable in the peculiar facts. Although no fixed statutory period governed completion of adjudication, the unexplained and excessive delay was held inconsistent with natural justice because the matter was not so complex as to justify keeping the allegation alive for such a prolonged period. The stale charge was therefore set aside and the appeal was allowed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the demand and penalty based on alleged non-accountal and clandestine removal could be sustained when adjudication was concluded 17 years after issuance of the show cause notice.

Analysis: The proceedings related to alleged unaccounted manufactured goods and possible clandestine removal. Although the law prescribed no fixed limitation for completing adjudication, the delay of 17 years was found to be excessive in the circumstances. The dispute did not involve a case of such complexity as to justify keeping the charge alive for so long, and natural justice required that an assessee should not be left to meet a stale allegation after an inordinate lapse of time when evidence may no longer be readily available.

Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the appeal was allowed in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Inordinate and unexplained delay in completing adjudication, where the matter did not warrant prolonged evidence collection, rendered the charge unsustainable in the peculiar facts of the case.

Ratio Decidendi: An adjudication on excise liability cannot be kept alive for an inordinate period where the delay is unreasonable and the case does not justify such prolonged continuation of proceedings.

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