2014 (8) TMI 978

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....us other conditions, which are attached with the availing of the benefit of the exemption Notification. Against the proceedings taken for recovery and assessing the appellant to central excise and also penalty, appellant preferred appeals before the Tribunal. It also made applications for waiver of pre-deposit. The applications were considered originally by the Judicial Member and the Technical Member. The Judicial Member was of the view that, in the circumstances of the case, appellant had made out a case for complete exemption from pre-deposit. On the other hand, the Technical Member was of the view that there appears to be no material to show that the appellant had commenced commercial production before 31st March, 2010, which was the re....

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....ppellant against the assessment orders came to be dismissed. The final orders passed in the said appeals are impugned by way of Central Excise Appeal Nos. 6 of 2014 and 7 of 2014. 4. When these matters came up, we heard the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant and the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent. 5. The learned counsel for the appellant would point out that it is a case, where the authority has placed reliance on the statement of one of its employees primarily for finding that the commercial production had not commenced prior to 31st March, 2010. Even though a request was made to make the said employee available for cross-examination, that was turned down. This cuts the root of the c....

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....t had not been challenged before the Apex Court and, therefore, the appeals have become infructuous and, resultantly, the appeals against the final order must also fail as, without making the pre-deposit, the appeals are not maintainable. He further contends that the appeals can be maintained in law only if there are substantial questions of law and there are no substantial questions of law in these cases. In other words, he would say that a finding can be said to give rise to substantial question of law only when it is perverse and the orders passed in these cases cannot be treated as perverse. It is further pointed out that the certificate of the officer relied on by the Government has not been issued by the Government as such and there i....

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....s stand, in respect of appeals, which are pending, appellant needs to make only initial deposit of 7.5 per cent of the amount demanded. But, we cannot apply the said yardstick to a case, which already stood dismissed. 10. We are not unmindful of the interim order passed by this Court refusing stay; but, we also cannot overlook the fact that the appeals are left pending and the appellant was given an opportunity to produce the documents produced before the Tribunal. The final orders are merely resultant orders or dependent orders passed consequent upon the non-compliance of the pre-deposit. We would think that, in the facts of this case, interest of justice would also require that the matter be adjudicated on merits; but, it cannot b....