Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Mumbai
Mira Silk Mills vs Commissioner Of Central Excise on 20 March, 2003
ORDER Gowri Shankar, Member (T)
1. The appeal is against the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) dismissing the appeal before him for failure to deposit the entire duty and penalty.
2. The appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) was against the order of the Joint Commissioner. In that order, the Joint Commissioner has found against the applicant on the ground that it did not produce to him copies of the invoices under which it sold to its buyers the goods that it processed. While the Commissioner (Appeals) records, in his order disposing of the stay application filed before him, the submission that these documents had been filed before the Commissioner (Appeals) on 5th February 2002 (the date on which he passed his order). He also records that this order or the invoices are not in the case records. Counsel for the applicant is not able to make a statement that copies of the letter dated 5.2.2001 addressed to the Joint Commissioner or of the invoices which were stated to be enclosed in the appeal memorandum or the stay application filed before the Commissioner (Appeals). He says however, that in the application filed for modification of his order received by the Commissioner (Appeals) on 1.11.2002, there is a specific averment that copies of these documents are enclosed. These have not been considered by the Commissioner (Appeals) in his order passed on 20th of that month, disposing of the appeal. Since this is the significant point upon which the Joint Commissioner has placed this decision, we think that it should have been considered by the Commissioner (Appeals) before he dismissed the appeal. He does in fact record the fact of application having been filed by the applicant for modification of the stay order, but says that no new point has been raised.
3. Accordingly the appeal is allowed and the impugned order set aside. The Commissioner (Appeals) shall consider the submissions contained in the letter dated 1.11.2002 of the applicant and pass orders on the stay application, in accordance with law.