FURN PLASTICS Vs. ASSTT COMMISSIONER OF C EX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule returnable forthwith. Respondents waive service through Mr. Choube. By consent, Rule is called out for hearing and heard finally.

(2.) The petitioner has filed an appeal before the Commissioner of Appeals, Central Excise (second respondent) under Sec. 35 of the Central Excise Act, 1944. The petitioner simultaneously moved an application under Sec. 35F of the Act seeking stay of the execution of the orders and dues which were appealed against. For reasons which we find it difficult to understand, the Commissioner kept the application pending without passing any orders thereupon. The petitioner came to this Court by his Writ Petition No.296 of 1998 complaining against this inaction on the part of the second respondents. This Court by an order made in Writ Petition No. 296 of 1998 directed the second respondent to hear and dispose of the application under Sec. 35F (stay application) on or before March 31,1998.

(3.) Apparently, the second respondent - Commissioner was peeved by the order made by this Court (we are saying this on the basis of his action and manner in which he dealt with the matter subsequently) and on March 19,1998 issued a telegram to the petitioner at Nagpur to attend the hearing of Sec. 35F application on that day at Bhopal. It was obviously impossible for the petitioner to do so. The second respondent thereupon made an order dated March 19/23,1998 impugned in this writ petition, dismissing the stay application on the ground that the petitioner did not turn up for the personal hearing and that as he was busy with the election duty which he was to attend, he was unable to hear the matter before March 31,1998. Being aggrieved thereby, the petitioner is before this Court by the present writ petition.