BHARTI CELLULAR LTD Vs. COLLECTOR OF C. EX.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this case, the Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi has confirmed an amount of Rs. 53,41,647/ -as service tax under the provisions of Section 73(a) of the Finance Act 1994 and has also confirmed the interest accrued on the above amount under Section 75 of the Act, till the date of its payment.

(2.) THE learned SDR, Shri A.K. Agarwal raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the appeal before the Tribunal, referring to the language of Section 86(1) of the Finance Act which provides that "any assessee aggrieved by an order passed by a Commissioner of Central Excise under Section 84 or an order passed by a Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) under Section 85 may appeal to the appellate Tribunal against such order", and contends that since the order against which the present appeal has been filed is an order passed under the provisions of Section 73, an appeal against such order is not maintainable before the Tribunal. Shri V. Sridharan, learned Counsel draws our attention to the provisions of Sections 70, 71, 73, 84 and 85 and submits that the necessity of filing an appeal to the Tribunal arose because the impugned order under Section 73 was passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise, instead of a Central Excise Officer subordinate to the rank of Commissioner.

(3.) WE have considered the rival submissions. In view of the clear language of Section 86(1) of the Finance Act, 1994, we agree with the learned DR that the present order which has been passed in terms of Section 73 of the Act is not appealable to the Tribunal. Hence we reject the stay application and the appeal as not maintainable. Registry is directed to return the papers to the appellants.