2013 (7) TMI 533

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....peal Nos.2754 and 2755 of 2004 before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as 'the Tribunal'). They had also prayed for waiver of pre-deposit. Such applications were disposed of on December 31, 2004 by the Tribunal requiring the appellants to deposit the total sum of Rs.25 lakh by way of pre-deposit. The appellants thereupon preferred Special Civil Application No.4798 of 2005 before this Court, which was withdrawn on March 21, 2005, to enable the appellants to prefer modification application before the Tribunal. Once this attempt failed, the appellants again approached High Court. Their Tax Appeals came to be dismissed on October 21, 2010. They thereupon approached the Supreme Court. The Special Le....

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....w has been that the right of appeal is sacrosanct and should not be lightly taken away. It is true that under the Central Excise Act, 1944, such right of appeal is hatched by the requirement of pre-deposit of entire amount or such reduced amount as the appellate forum, the Commissioner of Tribunal, may in terms of Section 35-F of the Central Excise Act, 1944, provide. However, in view of the fact that for want of fulfilling the requirement of pre-deposit, the assessee's right of statutory appeal would get destroyed and the decision adverse to him would get confirmed without consideration of issues on merits, the Court has also been taking relaxed view of belated compliance of requirement of pre-deposit. This is not to suggest that the order....

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....herwise statutorily granted. In a given case, even if no pre-deposit is made, the appeal may not be heard, but having dismissed the appeal for non-compliance of pre-deposit does not permit the appellate authority to refuse to restore the appeal upon compliance being shown." 6. In the case of Hussein Haji Harun v. Union of India 1995 (77) ELT 803 (Guj.) the Division Bench observed that when the appeal is dismissed for non-compliance of the condition of pre-deposit, the appellate authority would have power to consider the restoration of appeal. Mere absence of a specific provision permitting such restoration would not be a bar. 7. Keeping in mind the above decisions and considering the fact that the appellants were all throughout pursui....