9911796707
TMI Blog1993 (8) TMI 187X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ocomotive Co. Ltd., respondents herein. The delay in filing the said application is 3 years and four months, the condonation of which has been sought in the Miscellaneous Application. 2. Shri S. Dutt Majumder, learned Senior Departmental Representative appeared on behalf of the applicant Collector. While admitting that under Section 35G of the Central Excises and Salt Act the Reference Applications have to be filed within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the order to which the Reference Applications relate and that the Tribunal has got the discretion to condone a delay in this regard only upto another thirty days, he submitted that in the said Section time limits have been provided for two actions. These are the filing o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... He pleaded that the delay may be condoned and the Reference Application taken up for hearing on merits. The issue involved is important and has recurring effect on revenue. 3. The plea for condonation of the delay made by the learned Senior Departmental Representative was strongly opposed by the learned Counsel for the respondents, Shri V. Lakshmikumaran. He contended that the comparison made by the learned SDR between the two periods within which Reference Application can be filed to the Tribunal and within which the Tribunal is required to refer the case to the High Court is not appropriate. The comparison made is of two incomparable things. The reliance placed on the Tribunal decision to the effect that the period prescribed for the Tr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... specified for the Tribunal to make the reference to the High Court, then there was no reason to provide a limit for the period of delay to be condoned. It would have been left on the pattern of Section 35B(5) which provides unlimited powers to the Tribunal to condone delay in filing appeals. This will be as per Doctrine of Alternative Injunction. When unlimited discretion has been given in one provision but a limited one in the other, the latter has to be applied only as per the actual terms mentioned. 4. Shri Lakshmikumaran then pointed out that the very question whether the period of 30 days beyond the 60 days is extendable or not has been decided by the larger Bench of the Tribunal in Collector of Central Excise, Meerut v. Lal Chand A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Court. Moreover, the larger Bench decision in 1986 (23) E.L.T. 530 is specifically to the effect that the delay in filing the Reference Application beyond 30 days after the normal period of 60 days is not condonable. The Supreme Court had actually held in Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Parson Tools Plants : 35 Sales Tax cases 413 = 1970 1 Supreme Court Journal 24, that if the Legislature in a Special Statute prescribes a certain period of limitation for filing a particular application thereunder and provides in clear terms that such period on sufficient cause being shown may be extended, in the maximum, only upto a specified time limit and no further then the Tribunal concerned has no jurisdiction to treat within limitation an applicati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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