RUPA ENGINEERING WORKS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioning assessee questions the propriety of an order-in-original passed on January 14, 2020. The petitioner claims that the order was received by it on the same day.

(2.) The impugned order itself indicates on its first page that an appeal may be carried therefrom within a certain period of time upon payment of a part of the duty or penalty in dispute.

(3.) Since there is an efficacious alternative remedy available to the petitioner, this Court is not minded to entertain the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. Further, the present petition has been carried more than three years after the receipt of the said order without any plausible explanation as to the delay. Even though, there is no period prescribed for limitation in invoking Article 226 of the Constitution, but Courts require challenges to quasi-judicial orders to be made within a reasonable time unless there is a satisfactory explanation in such regard.