ASHOK PHARMACEUTICALS Vs. CEGAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY filing this writ under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks to assail the order dated 25.6.2001 (Annexure P/7) passed by Customs Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) in an appeal filed by the petitioner. The order impugned in the petitioner is short and can thus be reproduced verbatim infra: 1. The Tribunal dismissed the appeal on the ground of failure to comply with its order for deposit within two months of Rs. 45,000. It dismissed the application for restoration on the ground that the deposit made in 1999 would not amount to compliance with the stay order. The present application again seeks restoration of the appeal.

(2.) THE only ground in the application is that the Tribunal has power to restore the appeal. The question is not whether the Tribunal has power to restore the appeal, but the manner in which that power should be exercised. There was no application, subsequent to the stay order, for modification or extension of time. It is clear that the appellant chose to deposit the amount when it find convenient to do so, 11 years after stay order. There is not the slightest attempt to explain the (sic) [delay] of more than a decade. To permit restoration in such a case would in effect amount to an admission that the orders of the Tribunal has no meaning or sanctity, can be complied with or flouted with at the option of the appellant. There is thus no question of restoring of this appeal. 2. Shri A.M. Mathur, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Shri Shrivastave, L/c for the Petitioner.

(3.) THIS being a writ under Article 227 of Constitution of India, this Court has to only confine its enquiry to the order against which the petition is filed. In other words, this Court has to only examine whether the impugned order was legally right or not? This Court cannot in this writ examine any other issue.