2023 (12) TMI 1011

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....n appeal case no. 75350 of 2023. The appellant has raised the following substantial questions of law for consideration. "1. Whether the Hon'ble Tribunal is justified in passing the impugned order without going into the merit of the case and dismissed the appeal on the ground that the appeal filed before the Respondent no. 4 beyond the period of limitation ? 2. Whether on the facts and circumstances, the Hon'ble Tribunal has ceased the right of your petitioner to get legitimate relief which involves a wide range of legal interpretations as well as involves the same question of law for the previous and subsequent assessment years, for which the same elucidation is involved, is not beyond the principle of natural justice ? ....

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....994. Aggrieved by the same, the assessee appellant has preferred the appeal before the Tribunal raising various grounds on merits. 5. The learned Tribunal by the impugned order dated 19th June, 2023 confirmed the order of the Commissioner of Appeals who had dismissed the appeal as time barred. It is no doubt true that there is a statutory time limit prescribed under Section 85(3)(A) of the Finance Act, 1994 and beyond the said time limit the appellate authority has no discretion to condone the delay in filing the appeal. We note that the appellant is a municipality within the meaning of Municipal Act and it is treated as local authority within the meaning of Article 243P of the Constitution of India. As could be seen from the adjudicatio....

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....ty on a technical ground. This discretion cannot be exercised in all cases and this Court is of the view that the case on hand is a rare case where the municipality is contesting demand raised by the Service Tax Commissionerate. That apart, in all probabilities the appellant would have complied with the pre-deposit condition while preferring the appeal before the learned Tribunal. As mentioned earlier, the appellant municipality had effectively contested the show cause notice by submitting a detailed reply producing documents and also availing the opportunity of personal hearing. Therefore, it cannot be stated to be a case where the appellant municipality was not diligent of their rights nor they had failed to prosecute the matter with sinc....