Can Tribunal Dismiss an Appeal for Non-Compliance of Pre-Deposit?
THIS was the question before the Bombay High Court recently.
As against a demand of over Rs. 4 crores, the Tribunal ordered a deposit of one-third of the demand. The appellants did not comply and the Tribunal dismissed the appeal. The appellant filed a restoration petition which was also dismissed by the Tribunal. So, the assessee-appellant is before the High Court. They took strength from the Supreme Court order in Balaji Steel ReRolling Mills vs. Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs reported in wherein the Supreme Court had held that the Tribunal could not have dismissed the appeal filed by the appellant for want of prosecution and it ought to have decided the appeal on merits even if the appellant or its counsel was not present when the appeal was taken up for hearing .
The High Court was not impressed and observed,
Now by taking assistance of the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India the defaulting parties raise the issue of the Tribunal's lack of power to dismiss a statutory appeal for want of prosecution in order to get over their lapses and defaults. They do not question the initial conditional order. After the time is over, they make an application for restoration and if that is also disposed of resulting in a conditional order against them, they challenge this order on the restoration application and raise the issue of the Tribunal's lack of power to dismiss the Appeal without any adjudication on merits. We do not think that such litigants deserve sympathy or there should be a premium on their lapses and deficiencies by an order from higher Court granting unconditional restoration of the Appeal and directing the Tribunal to decide the same on merits. It would be a travesty of justice if such an approach is adopted in all cases of this nature. We are therefore of the view that the Tribunal's order in the peculiar circumstances of this case is fully justified and no fault can be found therewith. The discretion to restore the matter has been exercised judiciously .
However the High Court granted one more opportunity to the appellant to make the pre-deposit along with a cost of Rs.25,000, within three months.