RATHI INDIA LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short facts of this case are as follows :

(2.) PURSUANT to an order of this Tribunal, the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise passed an Order dated 9 -10 -1998 sanctioning refund of an amount of Rs. 91,434.95 to the appellants. Later, the Assistant Commissioner issued corrigendum dated 9 -11 -1998 to the above order dated 9 -10 -1998, stating that the sanctioned amount of Rs. 91,434.95 was being adjusted against the Central Excise duty due from M/s. Rathi Alloys and Steel Ltd. in terms of Order -in -Original No. 94/97 dated 8 -1 -1998. As per the corrigendum; the Assistant Commissioner's order took a final shape as follows :

(3.) THE present appellants insisted on a speaking crder from the Assistant Commissioner, whereupon the Assistant Commissioner issued a show -cause notice and eventually adjudicated the matter and passed an order dated 7 -6 -1999. This order of the Assistant Commissioner was, in terms, no different from the order extracted above. This order dated 7 -6 -1999 was taken in appeal before the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) by the party on 5 -7 -1999. The Commissioner (Appeals) rejected the appeal as per order dated 22 -11 -1999 on the ground of time bar. The lower appellate authority did not recognise the Assistant Commissioner's order dated 7 -6 -1999 as legal inasmuch as, in his view, that order had been passed by the Assistant Commissioner without jurisdiction. The Commissioner (Appeals) treated the appeal before him as an appeal against the Assistant Commissioner's order dated 9 -10 -1998 as modified by the corrigendum dated 9 -11 -1998, and found that the appeal was beyond the statutory period of limitation reckoned from the date of the corrigendum. It is this order of the Commissioner (Appeals) that is under challenge before the Bench today.