The Finance Act, 1994 as well as the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 provides a mechanism for appeal against the orders passed by the Departmental Authorities, it has also prescribed period of limitation for filing such appeals and the same must be strictly adhered to by the concerned party seeking to file appeal. Section 86 of the Finance Act, 1994 provides for appeal to the Appellate Tribunal, i.e., Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal against the order passed by the adjudicating authority or an order passed under Section 85 (First appellate authority). Said section provides a period of three months to the assessee and period of four months to the Department to file appeal before the Hon'ble CESTAT (Appellate Tribunal), however, in case such appeal is delayed beyond the prescribed period, the Appellate Tribunal has discretionary power to condone the delay on sufficient/reasonable cause being shown by the applicant provided that such condonation of the delay must be reasonable and in the interest of justice.
That in one of our matters, the Department chose to file an appeal before Appellate Tribunal against an order passed in favour of the assessee by the Ld. Commissioner (Appeals), whereby part relief was granted to the assessee, however, the said appeal was filed by the Department with a delay of 463 days. It is pertinent to mention herein that during the said period, the assessee not being completely satisfied with the order passed by the Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) has also filed an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal within the prescribed time frame and the same was pending when the delayed appeal filed by the Department came up for consideration before the Appellate Tribunal for hearing on application for condonation of delay. It was submitted on the behalf of the Department before the Appellate Tribunal that the file of the assessee got mixed up due to reorganisation of the jurisdiction of the assessee pursuant to the introduction of the CGST Act, 2017 and therefore, the delay should be condoned in the interest of justice. The Department also brought to the notice of the Appellate Tribunal that the assessee has already filed an appeal against the same order and prayed that both the appeal of the Department as well as the assessee may be heard together. Our team vehemently opposed the submissions made by the Department and pointed out the fact that Committee of Chief Examiners had received the order on 13 February 2018, however, the Committee took a considerable time of one year and seven month to take a decision to file appeal against the said order and failed to provide any reasons as to why there was such enormous delay on part of the Committee and prayed that the appeal filed by the Department shall be rejected on ground of being time barred. After perusing the facts of the case, the Appellate Tribunal found that the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 came into effect from 01 July 2017 and the order was received by the Committee of Chief Examiners on 13 February 2018 and on the basis of the same, the Appellate Tribunal concluded that the reason behind delay cited by the Department is vague and unsatisfactory. The Appellate Tribunal further took note of the fact that the assessee has also filed an appeal against the said order which is pending before the Tribunal and records reflect that a copy of the same has also been received by the Department, however, the Department has failed to exercise their right to file cross-objection or appeal within a period of 45 days against the appeal filed by the assessee. In view of the said facts, the Appellate Tribunal agreed with the submissions of our team and rejected the application for condonation of delay and also dismissed the appeal filed by the Department.
Case details — Commissioner of Central Goods and Service Tax, Delhi East v. CHL Ltd.
Forum — CESTAT
Case No. — ST/52321/2019
Represented by — Adv. Varun Gaba & CA Anmol Gupta