2006 (4) TMI 176 - HC - Central Excise

Summary

Issues:
Challenge to order of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal rejecting restoration application due to failure to make pre-deposit despite attachment order by Commissioner, Central Excise.

Analysis:
The High Court of Judicature at Allahabad heard the writ petition challenging the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal's order rejecting the second restoration application of the petitioner. The petitioner argued that making a pre-deposit was unnecessary when their property had been attached by the Commissioner, Central Excise. However, the chronological facts revealed that despite obtaining a conditional interim order requiring a pre-deposit in 2003, the petitioner did not comply, leading to the dismissal of the appeal. Subsequent restoration applications were also rejected due to failure to deposit, even after an attachment order was issued in 2005. The Court noted that the current writ petition seeking to reopen the appeal, dismissed three years prior, was an abuse of the court process resulting from the 2005 attachment order. The Court held that the order of attachment could not be used to revisit a closed chapter, and thus declined to interfere in the matter using its discretionary jurisdiction, ultimately dismissing the writ petition.