Excise duty refund denied for belated revised declaration and attempt to bypass an unchallenged adjudication order.

Excise duty refund was held not maintainable where the revised price declaration was filed after clearance of the goods and the duty had already been paid on the basis of the approved declaration. The procedural scheme did not support a refund on a belated declaration, so the claimant could not rely on it to reopen the duty position. The Tribunal also applied the principle that an appealable adjudication order cannot be circumvented by filing a refund claim instead of challenging the order in appeal. On that basis, the refund claim failed.

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Issues: Whether refund of excise duty was admissible when the revised price declaration was filed after clearance of the goods, and whether the refund claim could be entertained in the face of an appealable adjudication order not challenged in appeal.

Analysis: The claim for refund was based on a revised price declaration filed after the clearance of the goods. The relevant excise procedure did not assist the appellant where the declaration was belated, and the duty had already been paid on the basis of the approved declaration. The Tribunal also applied the principle that a party cannot bypass the statutory appeal against an appealable adjudication order and later seek to reopen the same matter through a refund claim.

Conclusion: The refund claim was not maintainable and the appeal failed.

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