ECOPLAST PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule, returnable forthwith. Respondents appear and waive service.

(2.) The differential amount of duty amounting to Rs. 74,000.00 has been already paid by the petitioners albeit under protest and without prejudice to their rights and contentions in their pending appeal before the Tribunal. What remains is only the penalty amount which is Rs. 20,000.00 . The Tribunal itself in its own order found no apprehension at all qua the petitioners' capacity to pay the said amount if it so becomes necessary. The Tribunal has also observed that there is a prima facie case.

(3.) Now, in the facts and circumstances, when a prima facie case is found to exist, when the differential amount of duty has been already fully paid albeit under protest and when an appeal is preferred to the Tribunal, more fair and reasonable order would have been not to deprive the petitioners of having their appeal heard on merits and in accordance with law only because the penalty amount is not deposited, all the more when there is no dispute, even according to the Tribunal, on the total financial soundness of the petitioners in that behalf. Considering the facts and circumstances, one gets the impression that there is in this case over-emphasis on a technicality. Compliance therewith need not have been insisted in this particular case.